3D real-time single particle tracking using two-photon fluorescence from bright dye-based organic nanoparticles.

This paper addresses the use of ultrabright dye-based fluorescent organic nanoparticles in a 3D single-particle tracking two-photon microscopy setup. The nanoparticles consist of an assembly of quadrupolar dyes, presenting a large two-photon absorption cross-section. They exhibit low photobleaching, crucial for long-term tracking, and their high brightness allows nanometer localization precision.

Fast Nonlinear Microscopy Reveals Impairment of Fast Axonal Transport Induced by Molecular Motor Imbalances in the Brain of Zebrafish Larvae.

Cargo transport by molecular motors along microtubules is essential for the function of eukaryotic cells, in particular neurons in which axonal transport defects constitute the early pathological features of neurodegenerative diseases. Mainly studied in motor and sensory neurons, axonal transport is still difficult to characterize in neurons of the brain in absence of appropriate tools. Here, we measured fast axonal transport by tracing the second harmonic generation (SHG) signal of potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP) nanocrystals (nanoKTP) endocytosed by brain neurons of zebrafish (Zf) larvae.

Impact of α-Synuclein Fibrillar Strains and β-Amyloid Assemblies on Mouse Cortical Neurons Endo-Lysosomal Logistics.

Endosomal transport and positioning cooperate in the establishment of neuronal compartment architecture, dynamics, and function, contributing to neuronal intracellular logistics. Furthermore, dysfunction of endo-lysosomal has been identified as a common mechanism in neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we analyzed endo-lysosomal transport when α-synuclein (α-syn) fibrillar polymorphs, β-amyloid (Aβ) fibrils, and oligomers were externally applied on primary cultures of mouse cortical neurons.

Antenna surface plasmon emission by inelastic tunneling.

Surface plasmons polaritons are mixed electronic and electromagnetic waves. They have become a workhorse of nanophotonics because plasmonic modes can be confined in space at the nanometer scale and in time at the 10 fs scale. However, in practice, plasmonic modes are often excited using diffraction-limited beams.

Anti-coalescence of bosons on a lossy beam splitter.

Two-boson interference, a fundamentally quantum effect, has been extensively studied with photons through the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect and observed with guided plasmons. Using two freely propagating surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) interfering on a lossy beam splitter, we show that the presence of loss enables us to modify the reflection and transmission factors of the beam splitter, thus revealing quantum interference paths that do not exist in a lossless configuration. We investigate the two-plasmon interference on beam splitters with different sets of reflection and transmission factors.

Directional and monochromatic thermal emitter from epsilon-near-zero conditions in semiconductor hyperbolic metamaterials.

The development of novel thermal sources that control the emission spectrum and the angular emission pattern is of fundamental importance. In this paper, we investigate the thermal emission properties of semiconductor hyperbolic metamaterials (SHMs). Our structure does not require the use of any periodic corrugation to provide monochromatic and directional emission properties.

Nanoantenna for Electrical Generation of Surface Plasmon Polaritons.

Light emission by inelastic tunneling has been known for many years. Recently, this technique has been used to generate surface plasmons using a scanning tunneling microscope tip. The emission process suffers from a very low efficiency lower than a photon in 10^{4} electrons.

Single-plasmon interferences.

Surface plasmon polaritons are electromagnetic waves coupled to collective electron oscillations propagating along metal-dielectric interfaces, exhibiting a bosonic character. Recent experiments involving surface plasmons guided by wires or stripes allowed the reproduction of quantum optics effects, such as antibunching with a single surface plasmon state, coalescence with a two-plasmon state, conservation of squeezing, or entanglement through plasmonic channels. We report the first direct demonstration of the wave-particle duality for a single surface plasmon freely propagating along a planar metal-air interface.

Non-blinking quantum dot with a plasmonic nanoshell resonator.

Colloidal semiconductor quantum dots are fluorescent nanocrystals exhibiting exceptional optical properties, but their emission intensity strongly depends on their charging state and local environment. This leads to blinking at the single-particle level or even complete fluorescence quenching, and limits the applications of quantum dots as fluorescent particles. Here, we show that a single quantum dot encapsulated in a silica shell coated with a continuous gold nanoshell provides a system with a stable and Poissonian emission at room temperature that is preserved regardless of drastic changes in the local environment.

Epsilon-near-zero strong coupling in metamaterial-semiconductor hybrid structures.

We present a new type of electrically tunable strong coupling between planar metamaterials and epsilon-near-zero modes that exist in a doped semiconductor nanolayer. The use of doped semiconductors makes this strong coupling tunable over a wide range of wavelengths through the use of different doping densities. We also modulate this coupling by depleting the doped semiconductor layer electrically.

Berreman mode and epsilon near zero mode.

In this paper, we discuss the existence of an electromagnetic mode propagating in a thin dielectric film deposited on a metallic film at the particular frequency such that the dielectric permittivity vanishes. We discuss the remarkable properties of this mode in terms of extreme subwavelength mode confinment and its potential applications. We also discuss the link between this mode, the IR absorption peak on a thin dielectric film known as Berreman effect and the surface phonon polariton mode at the air/dielectric interface.

Impedance of a nanoantenna and a single quantum emitter.

Antennas are widely used by electrical engineers to enhance the coupling between propagating waves and electric sources or detectors. It is thus tempting to develop an optical analog to tailor visible light emission or absorption by an atom or a molecule. This idea has been put forward recently and it has been demonstrated that both the radiative rate and the emission pattern of optical emitters can be modified by metallic nanostructures.