Observation of edge bound states in the continuum at truncated silicon pillar photonic crystal.

Bound states in the continuum are optical modes with extremely high-quality factors and narrow resonances, which exist in the dispersion spectrum of the radiative region above the light line. A unique bound state in the continuum is supported at the edge of truncated photonic crystals, which is a type of a Fabry-Pérot type bound state in the continuum, but has never been observed in experiments. Here, we demonstrate the bound states in the continuum supported at the edge array of silicon (Si) pillars whose diameter is bigger than that of the rest of a Si-pillar two-dimensional photonic crystal.

Germanium metasurface assisted broadband detectors.

The demand on broadband near-infrared photodetections with high responsivity is becoming increasingly eminent; however its realization remains a significant technological challenge. Here we design, fabricate, and characterize a broadband Ge photodetector (1000-1600 nm), composed of densely packed 230-nm-thick Ge disks of different diameters (255 nm, 320 nm, and 500 nm), placed on top of a 105-nm-thin Ge layer. Using experimentally measured and calculated transmission and absorption spectra, we demonstrate that the absorption and detector responsivity are increased by nearly 2 orders of magnitude, compared to the unstructured Ge photodetector, due to the excitation of magnetic dipole resonances in Ge disks, while preserving a relatively low dark current.

Pedestal High-Contrast Gratings for Biosensing.

High-contrast gratings (HCG) are an excellent candidate for label-free detection of various kinds of biomarkers because they exhibit sharp and sensitive optical resonances. In this work, we experimentally show the performance of pedestal HCG (PHCG), which is significantly enhanced in comparison with that of conventional HCG. PCHGs were found to provide a 11.

Polarization-Dependent All-Dielectric Metasurface for Single-Shot Quantitative Phase Imaging.

Phase retrieval is a noninterferometric quantitative phase imaging technique that has become an essential tool in optical metrology and label-free microscopy. Phase retrieval techniques require multiple intensity measurements traditionally recorded by camera or sample translation, which limits their applicability mostly to static objects. In this work, we propose the use of a single polarization-dependent all-dielectric metasurface to facilitate the simultaneous recording of two images, which are utilized in phase calculation based on the transport-of-intensity equation.

Plasmonic nanojet: an experimental demonstration: publisher's note.

This publisher's note contains corrections to Opt. Lett.45, 3244 (2020)OPLEDP0146-959210.

Plasmonic nanojet: an experimental demonstration.

We propose and study a microstructure based on a dielectric cuboid placed on a thin metal film that can act as an efficient plasmonic lens allowing the focusing of surface plasmons at the subwavelength scale. Using numerical simulations of surface plasmon polariton (SPP) field intensity distributions, we observe high-intensity subwavelength spots and formation of the plasmonic nanojet (PJ) at the telecommunication wavelength of 1530 nm. The fabricated microstructure was characterized using amplitude and phase-resolved scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy.

Investigation of effective media applicability for ultrathin multilayer structures.

Multilayer hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs) are highly anisotropic media consisting of alternating metal and dielectric layers with their electromagnetic properties defined by the effective medium approximation (EMA). EMA is generally applied for a large number of subwavelength unit cells or periods of a multilayer HMM. However, in practice, the number of periods is limited.

Photonic spin Hall effect in hyperbolic metamaterials at visible wavelengths.

The photonic spin Hall effect in transmission is a transverse beam shift of the out-coming beam depending on polarization of the incoming beam. The effect can be significantly enhanced by materials with high anisotropy. We report, to the best of our knowledge, the first experimental demonstration of the photonic spin Hall effect in a multilayer hyperbolic metamaterial at visible wavelengths (wavelengths of 520 and 633 nm).

Effective surface conductivity of optical hyperbolic metasurfaces: from far-field characterization to surface wave analysis.

Metasurfaces offer great potential to control near- and far-fields through engineering optical properties of elementary cells or meta-atoms. Such perspective opens a route to efficient manipulation of the optical signals both at nanoscale and in photonics applications. In this paper we show that a local surface conductivity tensor well describes optical properties of a resonant plasmonic hyperbolic metasurface both in the far-field and in the near-field regimes, where spatial dispersion usually plays a crucial role.

Direct Amplitude-Phase Near-Field Observation of Higher-Order Anapole States.

Anapole states associated with the resonant suppression of electric-dipole scattering exhibit minimized extinction and maximized storage of electromagnetic energy inside a particle. Using numerical simulations, optical extinction spectroscopy, and amplitude-phase near-field mapping of silicon dielectric disks, we demonstrate high-order anapole states in the near-infrared wavelength range (900-1700 nm). We develop the procedure for unambiguously identifying anapole states by monitoring the normal component of the electric near-field and experimentally detect the first two anapole states as verified by far-field extinction spectroscopy and confirmed with the numerical simulations.

Laguerre-Gauss beam generation in IR and UV by subwavelength surface-relief gratings.

The angular momentum of light can be described by the states of spin angular momentum, associated with polarization, and orbital angular momentum, related to the helical structure of the wave front. Laguerre-Gaussian beams carry orbital angular momentum and their generation can be done by using an optical device known as q-plate. However, due to the usage of liquid crystals, these components may be restricted to operate in specific wavelengths and low power sources.

Near-field characterization of bound plasmonic modes in metal strip waveguides.

Propagation of bound plasmon-polariton modes along 30-nm-thin gold strips on a silica substrate at the free-space wavelength of 1500 nm is investigated both theoretically and experimentally when decreasing the strip width from 1500 nm down to the aspect-ratio limited width of 30 nm, which ensures deep subwavelength mode confinement. The main mode characteristics (effective mode index, propagation length, and mode profile) are determined from the experimental amplitude- and phase-resolved near-field images for various strip widths (from 30 to 1500 nm), and compared to numerical simulations. The mode supported by the narrowest strip is found to be laterally confined within ~ 100 nm at the air side, indicating that the realistic limit for radiation nanofocusing in air using tapered metal strips is ~ λ/15.

Boosting Local Field Enhancement by on-Chip Nanofocusing and Impedance-Matched Plasmonic Antennas.

Strongly confined surface plasmon-polariton modes can be used for efficiently delivering the electromagnetic energy to nanosized volumes by reducing the cross sections of propagating modes far beyond the diffraction limit, that is, by nanofocusing. This process results in significant local-field enhancement that can advantageously be exploited in modern optical nanotechnologies, including signal processing, biochemical sensing, imaging, and spectroscopy. Here, we propose, analyze, and experimentally demonstrate on-chip nanofocusing followed by impedance-matched nanowire antenna excitation in the end-fire geometry at telecom wavelengths.

Experimental Demonstration of Effective Medium Approximation Breakdown in Deeply Subwavelength All-Dielectric Multilayers.

We report the first experimental demonstration of anomalous breakdown of the effective medium approximation in all-dielectric deeply subwavelength thickness (d∼λ/160-λ/30) multilayers, as recently predicted theoretically [H. H. Sheinfux et al.

Ultrathin, ultrasmooth gold layer on dielectrics without the use of additional metallic adhesion layers.

With advances in the plasmonics and metamaterials research field, it has become more and more important to fabricate thin and smooth Au metal films in a reliable way. Here, by thin films we mean that their average height is below 10 nm and their average roughness is below 5% of the total thickness. In this article, we investigated the use of amino- and mercaptosilanes to increase the adhesion of Au on Si wafers, thus obtaining a smooth and thin layer.

Direct characterization of plasmonic slot waveguides and nanocouplers.

We demonstrate the use of amplitude- and phase-resolved near-field mapping for direct characterization of plasmonic slot waveguide mode propagation and excitation with nanocouplers in the telecom wavelength range. We measure mode's propagation length, effective index and field distribution and directly evaluate the relative coupling efficiencies for various couplers configurations. We report 26- and 15-fold improvements in the coupling efficiency with two serially connected dipole and modified bow-tie antennas, respectively, as compared to that of the short-circuited waveguide termination.

A new method for obtaining transparent electrodes.

In this article, we propose a simple scheme to make a metallic film on a semi-infinite substrate optically transparent, thus obtaining a completely transparent electrode in a desired frequency range. By placing a composite layer consisting of dielectric and metallic stripes on top of the metallic one, we found that the back-scattering from the metallic film can be almost perfectly canceled by the composite layer under certain conditions, leading to transparency of the whole structure. We performed proof-of-concept experiments in the terahertz domain to verify our theoretical predictions, using carefully designed metamaterials to mimic plasmonic metals in optical regime.

Compact dipole nanoantenna coupler to plasmonic slot waveguide.

Optical nanoantennas can be used for coupling radiation to or from waveguides in analogy to micro- and radio-wave systems. In this letter we provide a systematic description of the design approaches for a coupler to a plasmonic slot waveguide in the telecom range around 1.55 µm with realistic excitation from a lensed optical fiber.

Impact of the excitation source and plasmonic material on cylindrical active coated nano-particles.

Electromagnetic properties of cylindrical active coated nano-particles comprised of a silica nano-cylinder core layered with a plasmonic concentric nano-shell are investigated for potential nano-sensor applications. Particular attention is devoted to the near-field properties of these particles, as well as to their far-field radiation characteristics, in the presence of an electric or a magnetic line source. A constant frequency canonical gain model is used to account for the gain introduced in the dielectric part of the nano-particle, whereas three different plasmonic materials (silver, gold, and copper) are employed and compared for the nano-shell layers.

High-index-contrast grating reflector with beam steering ability for the transmitted beam.

High-index contrast grating mirrors providing wave front control of the transmitted light as well as high reflectivity over a broad bandwidth are suggested and both numerically and experimentally investigated. General design rules to engineer these structures for different applications are derived. Such grating mirrors would have a significant impact on low cost laser fabrication, since a more efficient integration of optoelectronic modules can be achieved by avoiding expensive external lens systems.

Wave propagation retrieval method for chiral metamaterials.

In this paper we present the wave propagation method for the retrieving of effective properties of media with circularly polarized eigenwaves, in particularly for chiral metamaterials. The method is applied for thick slabs and provides bulk effective parameters. Its strong sides are the absence of artificial branches of the refractive index and simplicity in implementation.

1x3 beam splitter for TE polarization based on self-imaging phenomena in photonic crystal waveguides.

Based on inspiration from multi-mode interference self-imaging and theoretical FDTD simulations, a 1x3 beam splitter was designed, fabricated and characterized. Measurements show that for TE-polarized incident light the power is distributed equally between the output ports within 1dB in the range from 1541nm to 1552nm, and the total transmission of the 1x3 splitter is equal to the corresponding length of a single-line-defect PhCW within the measurement uncertainty.