No Arabic abstract
Quantum theory of surface plasmons is very important for studying the interactions between light and different metal nanostructures in nanoplasmonics. In this work, using the canonical quantization method, the SPPs on nanowires and their orbital and spin angular momentum are investigated. The results show that the SPPs on nanowire carry both orbital and spin momentum during propagation. Later, the result is applied on the plasmonic nanowire waveguide to show the agreement of the theory. The study is helpful for the nano wire based plasmonic interactions and the quantum information based optical circuit in the future.
Orbital angular momentum of light is a core feature in photonics. Its confinement to surfaces using plasmonics has unlocked many phenomena and potential applications. Here we introduce the reflection from structural boundaries as a new degree of freedom to generate and control plasmonic orbital angular momentum. We experimentally demonstrate plasmonic vortex cavities, generating a succession of vortex pulses with increasing topological charge as a function of time. We track the spatio-temporal dynamics of these angularly decelerating plasmon pulse train within the cavities for over 300 femtoseconds using time-resolved Photoemission Electron Microscopy, showing that the angular momentum grows by multiples of the chiral order of the cavity. The introduction of this degree of freedom to tame orbital angular momentum delivered by plasmonic vortices, could miniaturize pump-probe-like quantum initialization schemes, increase the torque exerted by plasmonic tweezers and potentially achieve vortex lattice cavities with dynamically evolving topology.
It is shown that when the gauge-invariant Bohr-Rosenfeld commutators of the free electromagnetic field are applied to the expressions for the linear and angular momentum of the electromagnetic field interpreted as operators then, in the absence of electric and magnetic charge densities, these operators satisfy the canonical commutation relations for momentum and angular momentum. This confirms their validity as operators that can be used in quantum mechanical calculations of angular momentum.
Dark plasmonic modes have interesting properties, such as a longer lifetime and a narrower linewidth than their radiative counterpart, as well as little to no radiative losses. However, they have not been extensively studied yet due to their optical inaccessibility. Using electron-energy loss (EEL) and cathodoluminescence (CL) spectroscopy, the dark radial breathing modes (RBMs) in thin, monochrystalline gold nanodisks are systematically investigated in this work. It is found that the RBMs can be detected in a CL set-up despite only collecting the far-field. Their visibility in CL is attributed to the breaking of the mirror symmetry by the high-index substrate, creating an effective dipole moment. The outcoupling into the far-field is demonstrated to be enhanced by a factor of 4 by increasing the thickness of the supporting SiN membrane from 5 to 50 nm due to the increased net electric dipole moment in the substrate. Furthermore, it is shown that the resonance energy of RBMs can be easily tuned by varying the diameter of the nanodisk, making them promising candidates for nanophotonic applications.
Lights orbital angular momentum (OAM) is an unbounded degree of freedom emerging in helical beams that appears very advantageous technologically. Using a chiral microlaser, i.e. an integrated device that allows generating an emission carrying a net OAM, we demonstrate a regime of bistability involving two modes presenting distinct OAM (L = 0 and L = 2). Furthermore, thanks to an engineered spin-orbit coupling of light in the device, these modes also exhibit distinct polarization patterns, i.e. cirular and azimuthal polarizations. Using a dynamical model of rate euqations, we show that this bistability arises from polarization-dependent saturation of the gain medium. Such a bistable regime appears very promising for implementing ultrafast optical switches based on the OAM of light. As well, it paves the way to the exploration of dynamical processes involving phase and polarization vortices.
Optical orbital angular momentum (OAM) provides an additional dimension for photons to carry information in high-capacity optical communication. Although the practical needs have intrigued the generations of miniaturized devices to manipulate the OAM modes in various integrated platforms, the on-chip OAM detection is still challenging to match the newly-developed compact OAM emitter and OAM transmission fiber. Here, we demonstrate an ultra-compact device, i.e., a single plasmonic nanohole, to efficiently measure an optical beams OAM state in a nondestructive way. The device size is reduced down to a few hundreds of nanometers, which can be easily fabricated and installed in the current OAM devices. It is a flexible and robust way for in-situ OAM monitoring and detection in optical fiber networks and long-distance optical communication systems. With proper optimization of the nanohole parameters, this approach could be further extended to discriminate the OAM information multiplexed in multiple wavelengths and polarizations.