Active Plasmonics: Electronic and All-optical Control of Photonic Signals on Sub-wavelength Scales
Lead Research Organisation:
Queen's University Belfast
Department Name: Sch of Mathematics and Physics
Abstract
The term 'plasmonics' refers to the science and technology dealing with manipulation of electromagnetic signals by coherent coupling of photons to free electron oscillations at the interface between a conductor and a dielectric. This field of research has emerged as an extremely promising technology with several main fields of application: information technologies, energy, high-density data storage, life sciences and security. The opportunity to guide light in the form of surface plasmon waves on metallic films is attractive for the development of integrated photonic chips where the information can be processed all-optically without the need of electronic-to-optical and optical-to-electronic conversion, as well as for integrating photonics with silicon electronics on a fully compatible platform. Performance of optoelectronic devices, such as light emitting diodes and photodetectors, can also be improved by integrating them with plasmonic nanostructures. Recent research in plasmonics has led to significant progress in development of various passive plasmonic components, such as waveguides, plasmonic crystals, plasmonic metamaterials, with tailored photonic properties. Plasmonic studies have, however, almost exclusively concentrated on pure metallic nanostructures and passive devices with properties fixed by the nanostructure parameters. At the same time, real-life applications require active control to achieve signal switching and modulation, amplification to compensate losses along with the direct generation and detection of plasmons. All these can be realised if plasmonic nanostructures are hybridised with functional (molecular or ferroelectric) materials. Here we propose to develop and study hybrid plasmonic nanostructures consisting of nanostructured metals combined with dielectrics to enable active functionalities in plasmonic circuitry. This project will unlock the plasmonics' potential for improvement of real-world photonic and optoelectronic devices and provide insight into physical phenomena which are important for various areas of optical physics and photonic technologies.
Organisations
- Queen's University Belfast (Lead Research Organisation)
- Intel Corporation (Collaboration)
- Australian Research Council (Collaboration)
- Argonne National Laboratory (Collaboration)
- University College Cork (Collaboration)
- National Physical Laboratory (Project Partner)
- Intel Ireland Ltd (Project Partner)
Publications
García-Meca C
(2011)
Low-Loss Multilayered Metamaterial Exhibiting a Negative Index of Refraction at Visible Wavelengths
in Physical Review Letters
Krasavin AV
(2011)
All-plasmonic modulation via stimulated emission of copropagating surface plasmon polaritons on a substrate with gain.
in Nano letters
Fernández-Domínguez AI
(2012)
Theory of three-dimensional nanocrescent light harvesters.
in Nano letters
Ginzburg P
(2012)
Analogue of the quantum Hanle effect and polarization conversion in non-Hermitian plasmonic metamaterials.
in Nano letters
Veniaminova Y
(2012)
Brillouin light scattering by spin waves in magnetic metamaterials based on Co nanorods
in Optical Materials Express
Ginzburg P
(2012)
Nonlinearly coupled localized plasmon resonances: Resonant second-harmonic generation
in Physical Review B
Poddubny A
(2012)
Microscopic model of Purcell enhancement in hyperbolic metamaterials
in Physical Review B
Appavoo K
(2012)
Role of defects in the phase transition of VO2 nanoparticles probed by plasmon resonance spectroscopy.
in Nano letters
Fedyanin DY
(2012)
Surface plasmon polariton amplification upon electrical injection in highly integrated plasmonic circuits.
in Nano letters
Krasavin AV
(2012)
Photonic signal processing on electronic scales: electro-optical field-effect nanoplasmonic modulator.
in Physical review letters
Lei DY
(2012)
Spectroscopic ellipsometry as an optical probe of strain evolution in ferroelectric thin films.
in Optics express
Bouillard JS
(2012)
Broadband and broadangle SPP antennas based on plasmonic crystals with linear chirp.
in Scientific reports
Schmidt MA
(2012)
Hybrid nanoparticle-microcavity-based plasmonic nanosensors with improved detection resolution and extended remote-sensing ability.
in Nature communications
Francescato Y
(2012)
Plasmonic Systems Unveiled by Fano Resonances
in ACS Nano
Fernández-Domínguez AI
(2012)
Transformation-optics description of nonlocal effects in plasmonic nanostructures.
in Physical review letters
Foreman M
(2012)
Independence of plasmonic near-field enhancements to illumination beam profile
in Physical Review B
Pendry JB
(2012)
Transformation optics and subwavelength control of light.
in Science (New York, N.Y.)
Stashkevich A
(2012)
Brillouin scattering of light by spin waves in ferromagnetic nanorods
in Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials
Ginzburg P
(2012)
Non-exponential decay of dark localized surface plasmons.
in Optics express
Einsle JF
(2012)
Directed self-assembly of nanorod networks: bringing the top down to the bottom up.
in Nanotechnology
Wiener A
(2012)
Nonlocal effects in the nanofocusing performance of plasmonic tips.
in Nano letters
Lei DY
(2012)
Revealing plasmonic gap modes in particle-on-film systems using dark-field spectroscopy.
in ACS nano
Sidiropoulos TP
(2012)
Efficient low dispersion compact plasmonic-photonic coupler.
in Optics express
Di Martino G
(2012)
Quantum Statistics of Surface Plasmon Polaritons in Metallic Stripe Waveguides
in Nano Letters
Gu J
(2012)
Active control of electromagnetically induced transparency analogue in terahertz metamaterials.
in Nature communications
Poddubny A
(2012)
Tailoring and enhancing spontaneous two-photon emission using resonant plasmonic nanostructures
in Physical Review A
Luo Y
(2012)
Broadband Light Harvesting Nanostructures Robust to Edge Bluntness
in Physical Review Letters
Aouani H
(2012)
Multiresonant broadband optical antennas as efficient tunable nanosources of second harmonic light.
in Nano letters
Lee C
(2012)
Quantum plasmonics with a metal nanoparticle array
in Physical Review A
Bouillard JS
(2012)
Low-temperature plasmonics of metallic nanostructures.
in Nano letters
Sonnefraud Y
(2012)
Directional excitation of surface plasmon polaritons via nanoslits under varied incidence observed using leakage radiation microscopy
in Optics Express
Chettiar UK
(2012)
Enhancement of radiation from dielectric waveguides using resonant plasmonic coreshells.
in Optics express
Rahmani M
(2012)
Subgroup decomposition of plasmonic resonances in hybrid oligomers: modeling the resonance lineshape.
in Nano letters
Xia R
(2012)
Efficient optical gain media comprising binary blends of poly(3-hexylthiophene) and poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene- co -benzothiadiazole)
in Journal of Applied Physics
Duan H
(2012)
Nanoplasmonics: Classical down to the Nanometer Scale
in Nano Letters
Kauranen M
(2012)
Nonlinear plasmonics
in Nature Photonics
Fernández-Domínguez A
(2012)
Transformation optics description of touching metal nanospheres
in Physical Review B
Wiener A
(2013)
Electron-energy loss study of nonlocal effects in connected plasmonic nanoprisms.
in ACS nano
Ginzburg P
(2013)
Linewidth enhancement in spasers and plasmonic nanolasers.
in Optics express
Aouani H
(2013)
Plasmonic Nanoantennas for Multispectral Surface-Enhanced Spectroscopies
in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
Kéna-Cohen S
(2013)
Confined surface plasmon-polariton amplifiers.
in Nano letters
Vercruysse D
(2013)
Unidirectional Side Scattering of Light by a Single-Element Nanoantenna
in Nano Letters
Lee C
(2013)
Robust-to-loss entanglement generation using a quantum plasmonic nanoparticle array
in New Journal of Physics
Kéna-Cohen S
(2013)
Ultrastrongly Coupled Exciton-Polaritons in Metal-Clad Organic Semiconductor Microcavities
in Advanced Optical Materials
Ginzburg P
(2013)
Manipulating polarization of light with ultrathin epsilon-near-zero metamaterials.
in Optics express
Zhang J
(2013)
Multiple Fano resonances in single-layer nonconcentric core-shell nanostructures.
in Optics express
Ginzburg P
(2013)
Cascaded second-order surface plasmon solitons due to intrinsic metal nonlinearity
in New Journal of Physics
Davies P
(2013)
Plasmonic Nanogap Tilings: Light-Concentrating Surfaces for Low-Loss Photonic Integration
in ACS Nano
Yakovlev VV
(2013)
Ultrasensitive non-resonant detection of ultrasound with plasmonic metamaterials.
in Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)
Related Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Award Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP/H000917/1 | 31/08/2009 | 30/09/2010 | £5,176,637 | ||
| EP/H000917/2 | Transfer | EP/H000917/1 | 30/09/2010 | 30/08/2015 | £4,462,875 |
| Title | In Nanophotonics Lab: Hyperspectral SNOM (a short film by Fanny Hoetzeneder) |
| Description | A short movie filmed in our lab. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2012 |
| Impact | General Public engagement |
| URL | http://vimeo.com/59812566 |
| Title | Nano Nail (by Imogen Clarke) |
| Description | Nano Nail is an artistic installation with nanoscale features in human body. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Impact | Public Engagement, student recruitment, tells general public about nano |
| URL | http://imogen-clarke.4ormat.com/nano-nail#0 |
| Title | Nano Sublimation (by Nedyalka Panova) |
| Description | NANO Sublimation is an installation depicting in conceptual way plasmonic metamaterial. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2013 |
| Impact | Was exhibited in art galleries in London. Currently permanently exhibited at Physics Department at King's College. General public engagement, student recruitment. |
| URL | http://www.nedyalkapanova.com/ |
| Description | The term 'plasmonics' refers to the science and technology dealing with manipulation of electromagnetic signals by coherent coupling of photons to free electron oscillations at the interface between a conductor and a dielectric. This field of research has emerged as an extremely promising technology with several main fields of application: information technologies, energy, high-density data storage, life sciences and security. The opportunity to guide light in the form of surface plasmon waves on metallic films is attractive for the development of integrated photonic chips where the information can be processed all-optically without the need of electronic-to-optical and optical-to-electronic conversion, as well as for integrating photonics with silicon electronics on a fully compatible platform. Performance of optoelectronic devices, such as light emitting diodes and photodetectors, can also be improved by integrating them with plasmonic nanostructures. Recent research in plasmonics has led to significant progress in development of various passive plasmonic components, such as waveguides, plasmonic crystals, plasmonic metamaterials, with tailored photonic properties. We have developed plasmonic applications beyond traditional passive devices to achieve plasmonic circuitry components with active functionalities: sources, detectors, modulators and switches, allowing efficient generation and manipulation of optical signals at the nanoscale. Plasmonic nanolasers, including ultrafast nanolasers were developed. Ultrafast (sup 1 ps) switches based on plasmonic materials demonstrated integratable with plasmonic, Si-photonics and other types of phtonic circuitries. Active control to achieve signal switching and modulation, amplification to compensate losses along with the direct generation and detection of plasmons were achieved. All these were realised in plasmonic nanostructures hybridised with functional (molecular or ferroelectric) materials. |
| Exploitation Route | We are exploring ways to licence our patents and created a start-up company. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Electronics Other |
| URL | http://www.activeplasmonics.org |
| Description | 4 patents have been applied for. Start-up company "Causeway Photonics" created. Nanophotonics Foresight report was instrumental for defining H2020 Photonics workprogramme. Outreach to general public through collaborations with artists. |
| Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Other |
| Impact Types | Cultural Economic Policy & public services |
| Description | Contribution to Europen Nanophotonics Foresight Report |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
| URL | http://www.nanophotonicseurope.org/ |
| Description | Nanophotonics: A Forward Look |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
| URL | http://www.nanophotonicseurope.org/ |
| Description | FET CCA |
| Amount | € 640,000 (EUR) |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Department | Horizon 2020 |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Start | 01/2017 |
| End | 12/2018 |
| Description | Argonne |
| Organisation | Argonne National Laboratory |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Investigation on nonlinear and ultrafast response of plasmonic nanostructures |
| Collaborator Contribution | User access to the ultrafast spectroscopy facilities |
| Impact | Publications, conference papers, exchange visits, internal ANL collaborative grants |
| Start Year | 2010 |
| Description | CUDOS |
| Organisation | Australian Research Council |
| Department | Centre for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS) |
| Country | Australia |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Collaboration on theory of plasmonic devices |
| Collaborator Contribution | Collaboration on theory of plasmonic devices |
| Impact | Publications, conference papers, joint grant applications |
| Start Year | 2011 |
| Description | INTEL |
| Organisation | Intel Corporation |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Reserach in plasmonic on-chip interconnects |
| Collaborator Contribution | part-funding of a PhD student, Advisory Board |
| Impact | Publications, conference papers |
| Start Year | 2009 |
| Description | Tyndall |
| Organisation | University College Cork |
| Department | Tyndall National Institute |
| Country | Ireland |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Design and characterisation of plasmonic-enhanced VCSEL lasers for high-density data storage applications |
| Collaborator Contribution | Fabrication of plasmonic-enhanced VCSEL lasers for high-density data storage applications |
| Impact | Publications, conference papers |
| Start Year | 2010 |
| Company Name | Causeway Sensors |
| Description | Causeway Sensors develops nanotechnology designed to provide kinetic analysis during biotherapeutic production to improve candidate selection for drug discovery. |
| Year Established | 2013 |
| Impact | Customers include biology laboratories in academia, Institute laboratories and diverse industry. |
| Website | http://www.causewaysensors.com |
| Description | London Science Festival 2011 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Our image "Plasmonic ring-resonator" was a joint (with the other image) best-seller. Public could buy prints of the exhibited image with proceed for charity. Generated lots of interest in general public in science and photonics in particular. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| URL | http://londonsciencefestival.com/ |