Photoluminescence upconversion in monolayer WSe2 activated by plasmonic cavities through resonant excitation of dark excitons.

Anti-Stokes photoluminescence (PL) is light emission at a higher photon energy than the excitation, with applications in optical cooling, bioimaging, lasing, and quantum optics. Here, we show how plasmonic nano-cavities activate anti-Stokes PL in WSe2 monolayers through resonant excitation of a dark exciton at room temperature. The optical near-fields of the plasmonic cavities excite the out-of-plane transition dipole of the dark exciton, leading to light emission from the bright exciton at higher energy. Through statistical measurements on hundreds of plasmonic cavities, we show that coupling to the dark exciton leads to a near hundred-fold enhancement of the upconverted PL intensity. This is further corroborated by experiments in which the laser excitation wavelength is tuned across the dark exciton. We show that a precise nanoparticle geometry is key for a consistent enhancement, with decahedral nanoparticle shapes providing an efficient PL upconversion. Finally, we demonstrate a selective and reversible switching of the upconverted PL via electrochemical gating. Our work introduces the dark exciton as an excitation channel for anti-Stokes PL in WSe2 and paves the way for large-area substrates providing nanoscale optical cooling, anti-Stokes lasing, and radiative engineering of excitons.

How good is your metalens? Experimental verification of metalens performance criterion.

A metric for evaluation of overall metalens performance is presented. It is applied to determination of optimal operating spectral range of a metalens, both theoretically and experimentally. This metric is quite general and can be applied to the design and evaluation of future metalenses, particularly achromatic metalenses.

Ultrasmall Mode Volume Hyperbolic Nanocavities for Enhanced Light-Matter Interaction at the Nanoscale.

Cavities are the building blocks for multiple photonic applications from linear to nonlinear optics and from classical optics to quantum electrodynamics. Hyperbolic metamaterial cavities are one class of optical cavities that have recently been realized and shown to possess desirable characteristics such as engineered refractive indices and ultrasmall mode volumes, both beneficial for enhancement of light-matter interactions at the nanoscale. We hereby report the design, fabrication, and experimental characterization of nanoscale hyperbolic metamaterial cavities at the visible frequency. We show experimentally that these nanocavities enhance the light-matter interaction at the nanoscale and demonstrate increased photonic density of states and enhanced free space radiation efficiency of quantum dots coupled to such cavities, thus demonstrating the importance of hyperbolic metamaterial cavities for applications in solid-state light sources, quantum technologies, and cavity quantum electrodynamics.

Nonlinear Diffraction in Asymmetric Dielectric Metasurfaces.

Metasurfaces provide new and promising mechanisms with which to control and manipulate light at the nanoscale. While most metasurfaces are designed to operate in the linear regime, it was recently shown that such metasurfaces may also generate nonlinear signals by manipulation of the higher-order susceptibility terms. As such, metasurfaces can generate additional harmonics without the need for light propagation, as typically occurs in nonlinear crystals. While such demonstrations typically rely on the nonlinear properties of metals, we hereby report the design, fabrication, and experimental characterization of a resonant dielectric metasurface made of amorphous silicon to create and manipulate second harmonic light and control its diffraction patterns. As shown in the paper, the second harmonic generation of light follows selection rules that rely on the asymmetry of the meta-atom. Given the fact that silicon crystals are centrosymmetric, the generation of the second harmonic signal in amorphous silicon is intriguing. In fact, the second harmonic signal is generated mostly from the surface of the meta-atom. It is the use of nanostructures that increases the surface-to-volume ratio and enables second harmonic generation. Additionally, the meta-atom is designed to exploit its spectral resonances in the principal and the second harmonic frequencies for providing electromagnetic field enhancement, which assists in boosting the generation of second harmonic signals.

Nanoscale Plasmonic V-Groove Waveguides for the Interrogation of Single Fluorescent Bacterial Cells.

We experimentally demonstrate the interrogation of an individual Escherichia coli cell using a nanoscale plasmonic V-groove waveguide. Several different configurations were studied. The first involved the excitation of the cell in a liquid environment because it flows on top of the waveguide nanocoupler, while the obtained fluorescence is coupled into the waveguide and collected at the other nanocoupler. The other two configurations involved the positioning of the bacterium within the nanoscale waveguide and its excitation in a dry environment either directly from the top or through waveguide modes. This is achieved by taking advantage of the waveguide properties not only for light guiding but also as a mechanical tool for trapping the bacteria within the V-grooves. The obtained results are supported by a set of numerical simulations, shedding more light on the mechanism of excitation. This demonstration paves the way for the construction of an efficient bioplasmonic chip for diverse cell-based sensing applications.

Dynamic Control over the Optical Transmission of Nanoscale Dielectric Metasurface by Alkali Vapors.

In recent years, dielectric and metallic nanoscale metasurfaces are attracting growing attention and are being used for variety of applications. Resulting from the ability to introduce abrupt changes in optical properties at nanoscale dimensions, metasurfaces enable unprecedented control over light's different degrees of freedom, in an essentially two-dimensional configuration. Yet, the dynamic control over metasurface properties still remains one of the ultimate goals of this field. Here, we demonstrate the optical resonant interaction between a form birefringent dielectric metasurface made of silicon and alkali atomic vapor to control and effectively tune the optical transmission pattern initially generated by the nanoscale dielectric metasurface. By doing so, we present a controllable metasurface system, the output of which may be altered by applying magnetic fields, changing input polarization, or shifting the optical frequency. Furthermore, we also demonstrate the nonlinear behavior of our system taking advantage of the saturation effect of atomic transition. The demonstrated approach paves the way for using metasurfaces in applications where dynamic tunability of the metasurface is in need, for example, for scanning systems, tunable focusing, real time displays, and more.

Unveiling the propagation dynamics of self-accelerating vector beams.

We study theoretically and experimentally the varying polarization states and intensity patterns of self-accelerating vector beams. It is shown that as these beams propagate, the main intensity lobe and the polarization singularity gradually drift apart. Furthermore, the propagation dynamics can be manipulated by controlling the beams' acceleration coefficients. We also demonstrate the self-healing dynamics of these accelerating vector beams for which sections of the vector beam are being blocked by an opaque or polarizing obstacle. Our results indicate that the self-healing process is almost insensitive for the obstacles' polarization direction. Moreover, the spatial polarization structure also shows self- healing properties, and it is reconstructed as the beam propagates further beyond the perturbation plane. These results open various possibilities for generating, shaping and manipulating the intensity patterns and space variant polarization states of accelerating vector beams.

Generation of a periodic array of radially polarized Plasmonic focal spots.

This paper demonstrates experimentally the tight focusing of a 3X3 array of radially polarized diffraction orders, and the coupling of this array of spots to surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs), propagating on a uniform metal film, and effectively generating a periodic structure of plasmonic sources by the use of structured illumination pattern, rather than by structuring the plasmonic sample. Using near field measurements, we observed coherent interactions between these multiple plasmonic sources as they propagate towards each other. The demonstrated setup exploits the previously demonstrated advantages of radially polarized light in coupling to SPPs and in generating sharper plasmonic hot spots and expends its use towards mitigating parallel processing challenges. The experimental results are in good agreement with the theory, showing interference fringes having periodicity compatible with the plasmonic SPP wavelength. The demonstrated approach of generating array of hot spots on flat metallic films is expected to play a role in variety of applications, e.g. microscopy, lithography, sensing and optical memories.