No Arabic abstract
We fabricated hybrid metal-dielectric nanoantennas and measured their optical response at three different wavelengths. The nanostructure is fabricated on a bilayer film formed by the sequential deposition of silicon and gold on a transparent substrate. The optical characterization is done via fluorescence measurements. We characterized the fluorescence enhancement, as well as the lifetime and detection volume reduction for each wavelength. We observe that the hybrid metal-dielectric nanoantennas behave as enhanced Zero Mode Waveguides in the near-infrared spectral region. Their detection volume is such that they can perform enhanced single-molecule detection at tens of microM. However, a wavelength blue-shift of 40 nm dramatically decreases the performance of the nanoantennas. We compared their behavior with that of a golden ZMW, and we verified that the dielectric silicon layer improves the design. We interpreted the experimental observations with the help of numerical simulations. In addition, the simulations showed that the field enhancement of the structure highly depends on the incoming beam: tightly focused beams yield lower field enhancements than plane-waves.
Holes in metal films block any transmitting light if the wavelength is much larger than the hole diameter, establishing such nanopores as so-called Zero Mode Waveguides (ZMWs). Molecules on the other hand, can still passage through these holes. We use this to detect individual fluorophore-labelled molecules as they travel through a ZMW and thereby traverse from the dark region to the illuminated side, upon which they emit fluorescent light. This is beneficial both for background suppression and to prevent premature bleaching. We use palladium as a novel metal-film material for ZMWs, which is advantageous compared to conventionally used metals. We demonstrate that it is possible to simultaneously detect translocations of individual free fluorophores of different colors. Labeled DNA and protein biomolecules can be detected as well at the single-molecule level with a high signal-to-noise ratio and at high bandwidth, which opens the door to a variety of single-molecule biophysics studies.
We present a micrometer scale, on-chip integrated, plasmonic enhanced graphene photodetector (GPD) for telecom wavelengths operating at zero dark current. The GPD is designed and optimized to directly generate a photovoltage and has an external responsivity~12.2V/W with a 3dB bandwidth~42GHz. We utilize Au split-gates with a$sim$100nm gap to electrostatically create a p-n-junction and simultaneously guide a surface plasmon polariton gap-mode. This increases light-graphene interaction and optical absorption and results in an increased electronic temperature and steeper temperature gradient across the GPD channel. This paves the way to compact, on-chip integrated, power-efficient graphene based photodetectors for receivers in tele and datacom modules
In this work, we experimentally study the optical kerr nonlinearities of graphene/Si hybrid waveguides with enhanced self-phase modulation. In the case of CMOS compatible materials for nonlinear optical signal processing, Si and silicon nitride waveguides have been extensively investigated over the past decade. However, Si waveguides exhibit strong two-photon absorption (TPA) at telecommunication wavelengths, which lead to a significant reduction of nonlinear figure of merit. In contrast, silicon nitride based material system usually suppress the TPA, but simultaneously leads to the reduction of the Kerr nonlinearity by two orders of magnitude. Here, we introduce a graphene/Si hybrid waveguide, which remain the optical properties and CMOS compatibility of Si waveguides, while enhance the Kerr nonlinearity by transferring patterned graphene over the top of the waveguides. The graphene/Si waveguides are measured with a nonlinear parameter of 510 W-1m-1. Enhanced nonlinear figure-of-merit (FOM) of 2.48 has been achieved, which is three times higher than that of the Si waveguide. This work reveals the potential application of graphene/Si hybrid photonic waveguides with high Kerr nonlinearity and FOM for nonlinear all-optical signal processing.
Despite tremendous advances in the fundamentals and applications of cavity quantum electrodynamics (CQED), investigations in this field have primarily been limited to optical cavities composed of purely dielectric materials. Here, we demonstrate a hybrid metal-dielectric nanocavity design and realize it in the InAs/GaAs quantum photonics platform utilizing angled rotational metal evaporation. Key features of our nanometallic light-matter interface include: (i) order of magnitude reduction in mode volume compared to that of leading photonic crystal CQED systems; (ii) surface-emitting nanoscale cylindrical geometry and therefore good collection efficiency; and finally (iii) strong and broadband spontaneous emission rate enhancement (Purcell factor ~ 8) of single photons. This light-matter interface may play an important role in quantum technologies.
Striving for nanometer-sized solid-state single-photon sources, we investigate atom-like quantum emitters based on single germanium vacancy (GeV) centers isolated in crystalline nanodiamonds (NDs). Cryogenic characterization indicated symmetry-protected and bright (> 10^6 counts/s with off-resonance excitation) zero-phonon optical transitions with up to 6-fold enhancement in energy splitting of their ground states as compared to that found for GeV centers in bulk diamonds (i.e., up to 870 GHz in highly strained NDs vs 150 GHz in bulk). Utilizing lithographic alignment techniques, we demonstrate an integrated nanophotonic platform for deterministic interfacing plasmonic waveguides with isolated GeV centers in NDs that enables 10-fold enhancement of single-photon decay rates along with the emission direction control by judiciously designing and positioning a Bragg reflector. This approach allows one to realize the unidirectional emission from single-photon dipolar sources introducing a novel method that is alternative to the propagation-direction-dependent techniques based on chiral interactions or topological protection. The developed plasmon-based nanophotonic platform opens thereby new perspectives for quantum nanophotonics in general and for realizing entanglement between single photons and spin qubits, in particular.