Gradient-induced long-range optical pulling force based on photonic band gap.

Optical pulling provides a new degree of freedom in optical manipulation. It is generally believed that long-range optical pulling forces cannot be generated by the gradient of the incident field. Here, we theoretically propose and numerically demonstrate the realization of a long-range optical pulling force stemming from a self-induced gradient field in the manipulated object. In analogy to potential barriers in quantum tunnelling, we use a photonic band gap design in order to obtain the intensity gradients inside a manipulated object placed in a photonic crystal waveguide, thereby achieving a pulling force. Unlike the usual scattering-type optical pulling forces, the proposed gradient-field approach does not require precise elimination of the reflection from the manipulated objects. In particular, the Einstein-Laub formalism is applied to design this unconventional gradient force. The magnitude of the force can be enhanced by a factor of up to 50 at the optical resonance of the manipulated object in the waveguide, making it insensitive to absorption. The developed approach helps to break the limitation of scattering forces to obtain long-range optical pulling for manipulation and sorting of nanoparticles and other nano-objects. The developed principle of using the band gap to obtain a pulling force may also be applied to other types of waves, such as acoustic or water waves, which are important for numerous applications.

Electromagnetically induced transparency enabled by quasi-bound states in the continuum modulated by epsilon-near-zero materials.

Highly tunable electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) with high-quality-factor (Q-factor) excited by combining with the quasi-bound states in the continuum (quasi-BIC) resonances is crucial for many applications. This paper describes all-dielectric metasurface composed of silicon cuboid etched with two rectangular holes into a unit cell and periodically arranged on a SiO2 substrate. By breaking the C2 rotational symmetry of the unit cell, a high-Q factor EIT and double quasi-BIC resonant modes are excited at 1224.3, 1251.9 and 1299.6 nm with quality factors of 7604, 10064 and 15503, respectively. We show that the EIT resonance is caused by destructive interference between magnetic dipole resonances and quasi-BIC dominated by electric quadrupole. Toroidal dipole (TD) and electric quadrupole (EQ) dominate the other two quasi-BICs. The EIT window can be successfully modulated with transmission intensity from 90% to 5% and modulation depths ranging from -17 to 24 dB at 1200-1250 nm by integrating the metasurface with an epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) material indium tin oxide (ITO) film. Our findings pave the way for the development of applications such as optical switches and modulators with many potential applications in nonlinear optics, filters, and multichannel biosensors.

Photothermal metasurface with polarization and wavelength multiplexing.

Controlling temperature distribution at the micro/nano-scale brings new applications in many fields such as physics, chemistry and biology. This paper proposes a photothermal metasurface that employs polarization and wavelength multiplexing to regulate various temperature distributions at the micro/nano-scale. Such a photothermal metasurface is numerically validated by the finite element method. Firstly, the inversion algorithm is used to calculate the thermal power density distribution, which is decided by a given temperature distribution. Then, based on the bottom-up design method, (a) the library of absorption cross sections of gold nanoparticles is established by resizing nanoparticles; (b) the single pixel is constructed for wavelength and polarization multiplexing; (c) the overall structure of a photothermal metasurface is optimized and established. Finally, four given temperature distributions, combining the multiplexing of two orthogonal polarizations and two wavelengths, are achieved in the same area. The simulation results well confirm the feasibility of photothermal multiplexing. Such photothermal metasurface provides solutions for flexible control of temperature distribution at the micro/nano-scale.

Highly localized, efficient, and rapid photothermal therapy using gold nanobipyramids for liver cancer cells triggered by femtosecond laser.

In this study, the photothermal effect and up-conversion florescence imaging effect of gold nanobipyramids in liver cancer cells are investigated theoretically and experimentally to explore the photothermal ablation tumor therapy with higher photothermal conversion efficiency, shorter laser action time, smaller action range and lower laser power. The small-size gold nanobipyramids with good biocompatibility and infrared absorption peak located in the first biological window are synthesized. Femtosecond laser is focused on the nanobipyramids clusters in cells and the cells die after being irradiated for 20 s at a power as low as 3 mW. In contrast, the control cells die after irradiation with 30 mW laser for 3 min. The theoretical simulation results show that: under femtosecond laser irradiation, the local thermal effect of gold nanoclusters is produced in the range of hundreds of square nanometers and the temperature rises by 516 °C in 106 picoseconds. This therapy reduces the treatment time to seconds level, and the treatment range to square micrometer level, the power to milliwatt level. In this treatment, cells die by apoptosis rather than necrosis, which reduces inflammation. This result opens up a new way to develop photothermal ablation therapy with less side effects and more minimally invasive.

Dual-Wavelength Forward-Enhanced Directional Scattering and Second Harmonic Enhancement in Open-Hole Silicon Nanoblock.

Nanostructures with appropriate sizes can limit light-matter interaction and support electromagnetic multipole resonance. The interaction between light and nanostructures is intimately related to manipulating the direction of scattered light in the far field as well as the electromagnetic field in the near field. In this paper, we demonstrate dual-wavelength directional forward-scattering enhancement in an individual open-hole silicon nanoblock (OH-SiNB) and simultaneously achieve bulk and surface electromagnetic field localization. The second harmonic generation is enhanced using electromagnetic field localization on the square hole surface. Numerical simulations reveal that the resonance modes, at λ1 = 800 nm and λ2 = 1190 nm, approximately satisfy the Kerker condition. In the near field, the magnetic dipole modes at dual wavelength all satisfy the boundary condition that the normal component of the electric displacement is continuous on the square holes surface, thus obtaining the surface electromagnetic field localization. Moreover, highly efficient second harmonic generation can be achieved at dual wavelengths using the surface electromagnetic field localization and the increased surface area of the square holes. Our results provide a new strategy for the integration of nanoantennas and nonlinear optoelectronic devices in optical chips.

Three-Channel Metasurfaces for Multi-Wavelength Holography and Nanoprinting.

Metasurfaces, employed to simultaneously generate nanoprinting and holographic images, have been extensively explored recently. Among them, multi-wavelength multiplexing in a single metasurface is often accompanied by dispersion and crosstalk, which hinder the display of multicolor patterns. Here, we propose an efficient phase method to decouple the wavelength and realize a three-channel display operating at different wavelengths. Holographic images appear in the far field with the illumination of two different circularly polarized lights while a nanoprinting image is reconstructed by inserting an orthogonal optical path with the illumination of linear polarization light. The proposed metasurface is only composed of four types of unit cells, which significantly decreases the complexity of fabrication and improves the information capacity. Benefiting from its different decoding strategies and capability of multi-wavelength control, this approach may develop broad applications in information encryption, security, and color display.

Broadband Filter and Adjustable Extinction Ratio Modulator Based on Metal-Graphene Hybrid Metamaterials.

A novel multifunctional device based on a hybrid metal-graphene Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) metamaterial at the terahertz band is proposed. It is composed of a parallel cut wire pair (PCWP) that serves as a dark mode resonator, a vertical cut wire pair (VCWP) that serves as a bright mode resonator and a graphene ribbon that serves as a modulator. An ultra-broadband transmission window with 1.23 THz bandwidth can be obtained. The spectral extinction ratio can be tuned from 26% to 98% by changing the Fermi level of the graphene. Compared with previous work, our work has superior performance in the adjustable bandwidth of the transmission window without changing the structure of the dark and bright mode resonators, and has a high extinction ratio and dynamic adjustability. Besides, we present the specific application of the device in filters and optical modules. Therefore, we believe that such a metamaterial structure provides a new way to actively control EIT-like, which has promising applications in broadband optical filters and photoelectric intensity modulators in terahertz communications.

Multipole Resonance in Arrays of Diamond Dielectric: A Metamaterial Perfect Absorber in the Visible Regime.

Excellent characteristics and promising application prospects promote the rapid development of metamaterials. We have numerically proposed and demonstrated a novel subwavelength broadband metamaterial perfect absorber (BMPA) based on diamond dielectric arrays. The proposed absorber is composed of an ultra-thin two-layer structure covering the dielectric periodic array on a metal substrate. The materials of dielectric silicon (Si) and gold (Au) substrate are discussed in detail. In addition, different dielectric and refractory materials are also applied to achieve broadband absorption, which will make the proposed absorber greatly broaden the application field. A perfect absorption window (i.e., absorption rate exceeding 90%) can be obtained from near-ultraviolet to the visible range. The average absorption rate of 93.3% is achieved in the visible range. The results of multipole decomposition show that broadband absorption is mainly caused by electromagnetic dipole resonance and lattice resonance in a periodic array of Si. The proposed absorber can be extended freely by adjusting the structural parameters. The polarization-independent and incident angle insensitivity are proved. The proposed absorber may well be used in light energy acquisition, as well as for the scalability of optoelectronic and sensing devices.

Controllable Formation of Luminescent Carbon Quantum Dots Mediated by the Fano Resonances Formed in Oligomers of Gold Nanoparticles.

Rapid and controllable formation of fluorescent carbon quantum dots (CQDs) is highly desirable in the fields of nanophotonics and biophotonics. Here, a novel strategy for creating CQDs, which emit white light efficiently under the excitation of either laser light or a mercury lamp, is proposed and demonstrated. The luminescent CQDs are generated by irradiating a poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) film doped with dense gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with femtosecond laser pulses. The creation of CQDs from PVA is a two-step dehydration process mediated by AuNPs which act not only as heat sources but also as catalytic agents. The formation of CC, CC, and CO bonds is confirmed by infrared Fourier transformation spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It is revealed both numerically and experimentally that a spatially localized temperature distribution at the deep subwavelength scale can be achieved in oligomers of AuNPs by resonantly exciting the Fano resonances formed in the oligomers of AuNPs, enabling the generation of CQDs with small diameters. As one of the potential applications, it is demonstrated that optical display and optical data storage with ultralow energy can be realized by selectively introducing luminescent CQDs in the AuNP/PVA film.

Photothermal Response of Hollow Gold Nanorods under Femtosecond Laser Irradiation.

The photothermal kinetics of hollow gold nanorod (HGNR) under femtosecond laser irradiation are studied numerically with finite-element methods and a two-temperature model. Compared with solid gold nanorod (SGNR) with the same aspect ratio (AR), the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peak of HGNR can be red-shifted to the second near-infrared window, and the absorption cross-section of HGNR can be larger than that of SGNR. In addition, under the influence of an applied numerically electromagnetic field (simulated femtosecond laser irradiation), the heat generated by HGNR makes the temperature rise of the surrounding medium faster and higher. Compared with SGNR with the same resonance wavelength, HGNR has a slightly smaller absorption cross-section but can achieve a higher temperature rise of the external medium. In addition, the laser energy, required to achieve the critical temperature for selective photothermal damage of tumor cells, is also significantly reduced. Moreover, with the same incident laser energy, the decreasing of HGNR shell thickness leads to an increase of the temperature rise of the external medium, while the change of femtosecond laser pulse width will not significantly change the temperature rise of its lattice and the external medium. In short, this study aims to provide some useful insights for the applications of HGNR in photothermal tumor therapy.

Multipole Radiations from Large Gold Nanospheres Excited by Evanescent Wave.

We proposed the use of the evanescent wave generated in a total internal reflection configuration to excite large gold nanospheres and investigated the radiations of the high-order plasmon modes supported in gold nanospheres. It was revealed that the evanescent wave excitation is equivalent to the excitation by using both the incident and reflected light, offering us the opportunity to control the orientation of the electric field used to excite nanoparticles. In addition, it was found that the scattering light intensity is greatly enhanced and the background noise is considerably suppressed, making it possible to detect the radiations from high-order plasmon modes. Moreover, the influence of the mirror images on the scattering induced by a metal substrate is eliminated as compared with the surface plasmon polariton excitation. By exciting a gold nanosphere with s-polarized light and detecting the scattering light with a p-polarized analyzer, we were able to reveal the radiation from the electric quadrupole mode of the gold nanosphere in both the spatial and the frequency domains. Our findings are important for characterizing the radiations from the high-order modes of large nanoparticles and useful for designing nanoscale photonic devices.

Broadband zero backward scattering by all-dielectric core-shell nanoparticles.

Efficiently controlling the direction of optical radiation at nanoscale dimensions is essential for various nanophotonics applications. All-dielectric nanoparticles can be used to engineer the direction of scattered light via overlapping of electric and magnetic resonance modes. Herein, we propose all-dielectric core-shell SiO2-Ge-SiO2 nanoparticles that can simultaneously achieve broadband zero backward scattering and enhanced forward scattering. Introducing higher-order electric and magnetic resonance modes satisfies the generalized first Kerker condition for breaking through the dipole approximation. Zero backward scattering occurs near the electric and magnetic resonant regions, this directional scattering is therefore efficient. Adjusting the nanoparticles' geometric parameters can shift the spectral position of the broadband zero backward scattering to the visible and near-infrared regions. The wavelength width of the zero backward scattering could be enlarged as high as 142 and 63 nm in the visible and near-infrared region. Due to these unique optical features the proposed core-shell nanoparticles are promising candidates for the design of high-performance nanoantennas, low-loss metamaterials, and photovoltaic devices.

A Novel Fast Photothermal Therapy Using Hot Spots of Gold Nanorods for Malignant Melanoma Cells.

In this paper, the plasmon resonance effects of gold nanorods was used to achieve rapid photothermal therapy for malignant melanoma cells (A375 cells). After incubation with A375 cells for 24 h, gold nanorods were taken up by the cells and gold nanorod clusters were formed naturally in the organelles of A375 cells. After analyzing the angle and space between the nanorods in clusters, a series of numerical simulations were performed and the results show that the plasmon resonance coupling between the gold nanorods can lead to a field enhancement of up to 60 times. Such high energy localization causes the temperature around the nanorods to rise rapidly and induce cell death. In this treatment, a laser as low as 9.3 mW was used to irradiate a single cell for 20 s and the cell died two h later. The cell death time can also be controlled by changing the power of laser which is focused on the cells. The advantage of this therapy is low laser treatment power, short treatment time, and small treatment range. As a result, the damage of the normal tissue by the photothermal effect can be greatly avoided.

Lighting up silicon nanoparticles with Mie resonances.

As one of the most important semiconductors, silicon has been used to fabricate electronic devices, waveguides, detectors, solar cells, etc. However, the indirect bandgap and low quantum efficiency (10-7) hinder the use of silicon for making good emitters. For integrated photonic circuits, silicon-based emitters with sizes in the range of 100-300 nm are highly desirable. Here, we show the use of the electric and magnetic resonances in silicon nanoparticles to enhance the quantum efficiency and demonstrate the white-light emission from silicon nanoparticles with feature sizes of ~200 nm. The magnetic and electric dipole resonances are employed to dramatically increase the relaxation time of hot carriers, while the magnetic and electric quadrupole resonances are utilized to reduce the radiative recombination lifetime of hot carriers. This strategy leads to an enhancement in the quantum efficiency of silicon nanoparticles by nearly five orders of magnitude as compared with bulk silicon, taking the three-photon-induced absorption into account.

Radiation of the high-order plasmonic modes of large gold nanospheres excited by surface plasmon polaritons.

Large metallic nanoparticles with sizes comparable to the wavelength of light are expected to support high-order plasmon modes exhibiting resonances in the visible to near infrared spectral range. However, the radiation behavior of high-order plasmon modes, including scattering spectra and radiation patterns, remains unexplored. Here, we report on the first observation and characterization of the high-order plasmon modes excited in large gold nanospheres by using the surface plasmon polaritons generated on the surface of a thin gold film. The polarization-dependent scattering spectra were measured by inserting a polarization analyzer in the collection channel and the physical origins of the scattering peaks observed in the scattering spectra were clearly identified. More interestingly, the radiation of electric quadrupoles and octupoles was resolved in both frequency and spatial domains. In addition, the angular dependences of the radiation intensity for all plasmon modes were extracted by fitting the polarization-dependent scattering spectra with multiple Lorentz line shapes. A significant enhancement of the electric field was found in the gap plasmon modes and it was employed to generate hot-electron intraband luminescence. Our findings pave the way for exploiting the high-order plasmon modes of large metallic nanoparticles in the manipulation of light radiation and light-matter interaction.

All-silicon-based nano-antennas for wavelength and polarization demultiplexing.

We propose an all-silicon-based nano-antenna that functions as not only a wavelength demultiplexer but also a polarization one. The nano-antenna is composed of two silicon cuboids with the same length and height but with different widths. The asymmetric structure of the nano-antenna with respect to the electric field of the incident light induced an electric dipole component in the propagation direction of the incident light. The interference between this electric dipole and the magnetic dipole induced by the magnetic field parallel to the long side of the cuboids is exploited to manipulate the radiation direction of the nano-antenna. The radiation direction of the nano-antenna at a certain wavelength depends strongly on the phase difference between the electric and magnetic dipoles interacting coherently, offering us the opportunity to realize wavelength demultiplexing. By varying the polarization of the incident light, the interference of the magnetic dipole induced by the asymmetry of the nano-antenna and the electric dipole induced by the electric field parallel to the long side of the cuboids can also be used to realize polarization demultiplexing in a certain wavelength range. More interestingly, the interference between the dipole and quadrupole modes of the nano-antenna can be utilized to shape the radiation directivity of the nano-antenna. We demonstrate numerically that radiation with adjustable direction and high directivity can be realized in such a nano-antenna which is compatible with the current fabrication technology of silicon chips.

Magnetic Fano resonance of heterodimer nanostructure by azimuthally polarized excitation.

The optical properties of a Si-Au heterodimer nanostructure, which is composed of an Au split nanoring surrounded by a Si nanoring with a larger diameter, are investigated both theoretically and numerically. It is found that a pure magnetic plasmon Fano resonance can be achieved in the Si-Au heterodimer nanostructure when it is excited by an azimuthally polarized beam. It is revealed that the pure magnetic Fano resonance is generated by the destructive interference between the magnetic dipole resonance of the Si nanoring and the magnetic dipole resonance of the Au split nanoring. A coupled oscillator model is employed to analyze the Fano resonance of the Si-Au heterodimer nanostructure. The pure magnetic response of the Si-Au heterodimer nanostructure is verified by the current density distributions and the scattering powers of the electric and magnetic multipoles. The Fano resonance in the Si-Au heterodimer nanostructure exhibits potential applications of low-loss magnetic plasmon resonance in the construction of artificial magnetic metamaterials.

Hot-Electron Intraband Luminescence from GaAs Nanospheres Mediated by Magnetic Dipole Resonances.

Significantly enhanced electric field in plasmonic hot spots can dramatically increase the linear and nonlinear absorption of light, leading to a high-temperature electron gas which radiates, through mainly intraband transition, a broadband luminescence quite similar to blackbody radiation. Here, we demonstrate that such hot-electron intraband luminescence (HEIL) can also be achieved by exploiting the significantly enhanced electric field at the magnetic dipole resonances of gallium arsenide (GaAs) nanospheres (NSs). We show that monocrystalline GaAs NSs with distinct electric and magnetic dipole (ED and MD) resonances can be obtained by using femtosecond laser ablation and annealing. Significantly enhanced second harmonic generation and broadband HEIL are observed when the MD resonances of such GaAs NSs are resonantly excited. The lifetime of the HEIL is found to be as short as ∼82 ps, indicating a significant enhancement in radiative intraband transition rate. We reveal that the slope extracted from the dependence of the HEIL intensity on the irradiance is linearly proportional to the energy of the emitted photon. The existence of distinct ED and MD resonances in combination with a direct bandgap makes GaAs NSs an attractive candidate for constructing novel all-dielectric metamaterials and active photonic devices.

Encoding Random Hot Spots of a Volume Gold Nanorod Assembly for Ultralow Energy Memory.

Data storage with ultrahigh density, ultralow energy, high security, and long lifetime is highly desirable in the 21st century and optical data storage is considered as the most promising way to meet the challenge of storing big data. Plasmonic coupling in regularly arranged metallic nanoparticles has demonstrated its superior properties in various applications due to the generation of hot spots. Here, the discovery of the polarization and spectrum sensitivity of random hot spots generated in a volume gold nanorod assembly is reported. It is demonstrated that the two-photon-induced absorption and two-photon-induced luminescence of the gold nanorods adjacent to such hot spots are enhanced significantly because of plasmonic coupling. The polarization, wavelength, and spatial multiplexing of the hot spots can be realized by using an ultralow energy of only a few picojoule per pulse, which is two orders of magnitude lower than the value in the state-of-the-art technology that utilizes isolated gold nanorods. The ultralow recording energy reduces the cross-talk between different recording channels and makes it possible to realize rewriting function, improving significantly both the quality and capacity of optical data storage. It is anticipated that the demonstrated technology can facilitate the development of multidimensional optical data storage for a greener future.

Analogue of electromagnetically induced absorption with double absorption windows in a plasmonic system.

We report the observation of an analog of double electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) in a plasmonic system consisting of two disk resonators side-coupled to a discrete metal-insulator-metal (MIM) waveguide. The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation calculations show that two absorption windows are obtained and can be easily tuned by adjusting the parameters of the two resonance cavities. The consistence between the coupled-model theory and FDTD simulation results verify the feasibility of the proposed system. Since the scheme is easy to be fabricated, our proposed configuration may thus be applied to narrow-band filtering, absorptive switching, and absorber applications.