Plasmonic Tuning of Photoluminescence from Semiconducting Quantum Dot Assemblies

We report tuning of photoluminescence enhancement and quenching from closed packed monolayers of cadmium selenide quantum dots doped with gold nanoparticles. Plasmon-mediated control of the emission intensity from the monolayers is achieved by varying the size and packing density of the quantum dots as well as the doping concentration of gold nanoparticles. We observe a unique packing density dependent crossover from enhancement to quenching and vice versa for fixed size of quantum dots and doping concentration of gold nanoparticles. We suggest that this behavior is indicative of a crossover from single particle to collective emission from quantum dots mediated by gold nanoparticles.     

Ascertaining Plasmonic Hot Electrons Generation from Plasmon Decay in Hybrid Plasmonic Modes

Plasmonics - In the propagating process along metal surface, surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) mainly decay into thermal loss or release into photons, while a part of them were converted into...     

Plasmonic Effects of Dual-Metal Nanoparticle Layers for High-Performance Quantum Dot Solar Cells

To improve quantum dot solar cell performance, it is crucial to make efficient use of the available incident sunlight to ensure that the absorption is maximized. The ability of metal nanoparticles to concentrate incident sunlight via plasmon resonance can enhance the overall absorption of photovoltaic cells due to the strong confinement that results from near-field coupling or far-field scattering plasmonic effects. Therefore, to simultaneously and synergistically utilize both plasmonic effects, the placement of different plasmonic nanostructures at the appropriate locations in the device structure is also critical. Here, we introduce two different plasmonic nanoparticles, Au and Ag, to a colloidal PbS quantum dot heterojunction at the top and bottom interface of the electrodes for further improvement of the absorption in the visible and near-infrared spectral regions. The Ag nanoparticles exhibit strong scattering whereas the Au nanoparticles exhibit an intense optical effect in the wavelength region where the absorption of light of the PbS quantum dot is strongest. It is found that these dual-plasmon layers provide significantly improved short-circuit current and power conversion efficiency without any form of trade-off in terms of the fill factor and open-circuit voltage, which may result from the indirect contact between the plasmonic nanoparticles and colloidal quantum dot films.

     

Nonlocal Plasmonic Modes and Plasmonic Band Structures in Cylindrically Curved Graphene

Plasmonics - In this paper, hydrodynamic model has been analytically solved to investigate the nonlocal plasmons in cylindrically curved graphene layers. Within the quasi-static approximation, the...     

Plasmonic Effect on the Optical Properties in a Hybrid V-Type Three-Level Quantum Dot-Metallic Nanoparticle Nanosystem

We investigated theoretically the exciton–plasmon coupling effects on the population dynamics and the absorption properties of a hybrid nanosystem composed of a metal nanoparticle (MNP) and a V-type three-level semiconductor quantum dot (SQD), which are created by the interaction with the induced dipole moments in the SQD and the MNP, respectively. Excitons of the SQD and the plasmons of the MNP in such a hybrid nanosystem could be coupled strongly or weakly to demonstrate novel properties of the hybrid system. We also find that the gain happens in such a hybrid system, because of the coherent interaction between the SQD and the MNP. Our results show that the non-linear optical response of the hybrid nanosystem can be greatly enhanced or depressed due to the exciton–plasmon couplings.     

Multilayer Hybrid Plasmonic Nano Patch Antenna

This is the first report of a hybrid plasmonic nano patch antenna having metal insulator metal (HMIM) multilayer configuration. It is designed in a footprint area of 1.7 × 1.175 μm² to resonate at 1.55 μm wavelength. The proposed antenna is inset fed by an HMIM plasmonic waveguide for achieving proper impedance matching. It is observed, through electromagnetic numerical simulation, that the proposed plasmonic nano patch antenna emits a directional beam with a bandwidth, gain, and efficiency of 0.194 μm, 8.3 dB, and 96% respectively, which are significantly higher than previously reported designs. Since inset-fed antennas are suitable for developing high-gain antenna array, hence further, we examined antenna performance by designing antenna array. The proposed antenna is practically realizable and can be fabricated using standard semiconductor fabrication process. Moreover, it could be used for numerous chip scale applications such as wireless interconnects energy harvesting, photoemission, photo detection, scattering, heat transfer, spectroscopy, and optical sensing.

     

Plasmonic Modes of Ag Nanoshell Excited by Bi-Dipole

We studied plasmonic dipole, quadrupole, and sextupole modes of Ag nanoshell (NS) excited by a pair of aligned radial electric dipoles (bi-dipole) in symmetric and antisymmetric configurations by using dyadic Green’s functions. The mutual excitation rate and the radiative and nonradiative powers of bi-dipole in the presence of Ag NS were analyzed. Our results show that these modes are in accordance with the surface plasmon resonances of Ag NS irradiated by a polarized plane wave. In addition, the mutual excitation rate retains local maxima at these modes. Moreover, the quadrupole and octupole modes are only excited in the cases of the symmetric radial bi-dipole, while the dipole and sextupole modes are only excited in the cases of the antisymmetric ones. The dipole mode is broadband, while the other higher-order modes are narrowband. Moreover, all of these plasmonic modes are red-shifted as the ratio of the core radius to the shell thickness increases.     

A Hybrid Plasmonic Modulator Based on Graphene on Channel Plasmonic Polariton Waveguide

A hybrid plasmonic modulator based on graphene on channel plasmonic polariton waveguide was proposed to overcome the difficulty in achieving high-speed modulation on the nanometric plasmonic waveguide platform. The extinction ratio and the figure of merit of the proposed modulator were analyzed in detail, and a tradeoff between them was found due to the intrinsic loss of the channel plasmonic polariton waveguide. And an optimized hybrid plasmonic modulator with large modulation bandwidth of 0.662 THz, low power consumption of 118.7 fJ/bit, and short device length of 7.680 μm was obtained theoretically. In addition, the proposed hybrid plasmonic modulator based on graphene on channel plasmonic polariton waveguide is easy to fabricate and provides a potential solution for the high-speed plasmonic modulator.

     

量子点在生命科学中的应用

近年来 ,量子点 (半导体纳米微晶体 )的研究引起国内外研究者的广泛兴趣 ,其研究内容涉及物理、化学、材料等多学科 ,已成为一门新兴的交叉学科。虽然量子点在生物学中的应用才刚刚起步 ,但是已经取得了有意义的进展 ,成为人们极为注意的一个热点。现就量子点的光学特性、制备方法以及在生物学中的研究进展和应用前景作一简要综述     

量子点在基因转染中的应用研究进展

量子点因其独特的纳米尺寸效应、光学特性和生物相容性,既能作为纳米载体与目的基因结合,又能作为纳米荧光标记物跟踪记录其在转染过程中的位置,给基因工程的发展带来了新的契机。在阐述量子点用于基因转染的优势、标记基因的方法等基础上,作者系统综述了量子点在基因转染中的应用,并对其发展趋势和应用前景进行了展望。     

Substrate-Independent Lattice Plasmon Modes for High-Performance On-Chip Plasmonic Sensors

We systematically study the lattice plasmon resonance structures, which are known as core/shell SiO₂/Au nanocylinder arrays (NCAs), for high-performance, on-chip plasmonic sensors using the substrate-independent lattice plasmon modes (LPMs). Our finite-difference time-domain simulations reveal that new modes of localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) show up when the height-diameter aspect ratio of the NCAs is increased. The height-induced LSPRs couple with the superstrate diffraction orders to generate the substrate-independent LPMs. Moreover, we show that the high wavelength sensitivity and the narrow linewidth of the substrate-independent LPMs lead to the plasmonic sensors with high figure of merit (FOM) and high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In addition, the plasmonic sensors are robust in asymmetric environments for a wide range of working wavelengths. Our further study of both far- and near-field electromagnetic distribution in the NCAs confirms the height-enabled tunability of the plasmonic “hot spots” at the sub-nanoparticle resolution and the large field enhancement in the substrate-independent LPMs, which are responsible for the high FOM and SNR of the plasmonic sensors.     

Dual Polarization Measurements in the Hybrid Plasmonic Biosensors

A novel affinity biosensor is proposed based on the hybrid plasmonic platform. The proposed biosensor benefits from the high sensitivity of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR), while at the same time, it is capable of performing measurements in both the TM and TE polarizations (p- and s-polarizations). Unlike the conventional SPR biosensors, the polarization diversity of the hybrid sensor allows for decoupling of the bulk index variations in the fluidic channels (due to variations in concentration, decomposition, temperature, and so on) from the surface properties of the attached molecules. Compatibility of the proposed hybrid plasmonic biosensor with standard Si-processing techniques and the simplicity of its design are other advantages of the sensor which makes its fabrication straightforward. The best figure of merit for the biosensor is defined based on the minimum detection limit and a genetic algorithm is used to optimize the device. A method of de-convolving the surface and bulk effects is also discussed.     

Theoretical Analysis of On-Chip Vertical Hybrid Plasmonic Nanograting

Plasmonics - A complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) compatible photonic-plasmonic waveguide with nanoscale dimensions and better optical confinement has been proposed for the infrared...     

In-Plane Plasmonic Modes in a Quasicrystalline Array of Metal Nanoparticles

We investigated the plasmonic modes in a two-dimensional quasicrystalline array of metal nanoparticles. The polarization of the modes is in the array plane. A simplified eigen-decomposition method is presented with the help of rotational symmetry. Two kinds of anti-phase ring modes with radial and tangential polarizations are of highest spatial localizations among all of plasmonic modes. For the leaky characteristic of the anti-phase ring modes, the highest fidelity mode in the quasicrystalline array is found to be tangential polarized mode, whereas normal-to-plane polarized mode in the circular ring. The leaky characteristics and spatial localizations of other plasmonic modes are also studied, for example, collective vortex mode that may be a candidate to form negative responses in plasmonic device and collective radial mode that may be used to generate light sources with radial polarizations.     

Plasmonic Edge,Centre and Breathing Modes in Two-Dimensional Disks

Plasmonics - Recently, plasmonic edge and breathing modes are obtained by electron energy loss spectroscopy in aluminum nanotriangles and silver nanodisks. In this article, based on the...     

Hybrid Plasmonic Waveguide Based on Tapered Dielectric Nanoribbon: Excitation and Focusing

The nanofocusing of light source was proposed and simulated using the dielectric-loaded surface plasmon polariton (SPP) model with various laterally tapered planar dielectric architectures on the top surface of the metal. By using finite-difference time-domain method, enhancement factor for the local electric field under distinctive incident polarization was analyzed with different taper apexes under various incident wavelengths and incident angles of the excitation laser. The SPP dispersion and the effect of dissipation on adiabatic nanofocusing of SPP in a sharp taper structure were used to predict the optimal taper angles of the structure and to explain the phenomena of SPP wave slowing down as it propagating toward the taper end. This SPP nanofocusing process was also experimentally realized by illuminating the structure of a tapered CdS nanoribbon deposited on the Ag surface. As the emission of the focused SPP at the taper end, the proposed plasmonic structure can be severed as a light nanosource emitter in the future optical integrated circuits.     

Plasmonic Nanoparticle Aggregates in High-Intensity Laser Fields: Effect of Pulse Duration

We use an optodynamic model to study the interaction of pulsed laser radiation of different duration with mono- and polydisperse dimers and trimers of plasmonic nanoparticles as resonant domains of colloid Ag multiparticle aggregates. A comparative analysis of the influence of pulse duration on the kinetic characteristics of domains accompanied by the change in their local structure was carried out taking into account the intensity of incident radiation. The obtained results explain the reasons for laser photochromic reactions in materials containing colloidal aggregates of plasmonic nanoparticles.     

Multi-mode Hybrid Plasmonic Waveguides with Enhanced Confinement and Propagation

A hybrid waveguide, which consists of a dielectric wire above a dielectric-metal interface, has been previously proposed to achieve high confinement with low loss. By exciting this geometry with an aperture in the metal that takes advantage of the extraordinary transmission through subwavelength apertures, it is possible to strongly couple to multiple modes. The real part of the fundamental mode is in fact capable of exceeding the index of refraction of all the materials used while maintaining a manageable imaginary part, as a result of appropriate choice of materials for the dielectric wire and the metal. In addition, as the confinement of the second mode is comparable to that of the fundamental mode but has a much longer propagation length, this mode can be utilized in light-guiding applications where enhanced confinement and propagation is desired.     

Ultra-Subwavelength and Low Loss in V-Shaped Hybrid Plasmonic Waveguide

A new kind of hybrid plasmonic waveguide is proposed, and its propagation properties are investigated using the finite-element method. This waveguide consists of a V-shaped silver nanowire embedded in a low-index dielectric cladding above a semiconductor substrate, which can confine light in the subwavelength region with a long propagation length. The field distribution, the mode effective index, the propagation length, and the normalized mode area of the hybrid mode supported by the waveguide are investigated at the wavelength of 1550 nm, which are dependent on the geometric parameters.