No Arabic abstract
The generation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) at isolated nanoholes in 100 nm thick Au films is studied using near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM). Finite-difference time-domain calculations, some explicitly including a model of the NSOM tip, are used to interpret the results. We find the holes act as point-like sources of SPPs and demonstrate that interference between SPPs and a directly transmitted wave allows for determination of the wavelength, phase, and decay length of the SPP. The near-field intensity patterns can be manipulated by varying the angle and polarization of the incident beam.
Thanks to Victor Veselago for his hypothesis of negative index of refraction, metamaterials -- engineered composites -- can be designed to have properties difficult or impossible to find in nature: they can have both electrical permitivity ($epsilon$) and magnetic permeability ($mu$) simultaneously negative. The metamaterials -- henceforth negative-index materials (NIMs) -- owe their properties to subwavelength structure rather than to their chemical composition. The tailored electromagnetic response of the NIMs has had a dramatic impact on the classical optics: they are becoming known to have changed many basic notions related with the electromagnetism. The present article is focused on gathering and reviewing the fundamental characteristics of plasmon propagation in the coaxial cables fabricated of the right-handed medium (RHM) [with $epsilon>0$, $mu>0$] and the left-handed medium (LHM) [with $epsilon<0$, $mu<0$] in alternate shells starting from the innermost cable. Such structures as conceived here may pave the way to some interesting effects in relation to, e.g., the optical science exploiting the cylindrical symmetry of the coaxial waveguides that make it possible to perform all major functions of an optical fiber communication system in which the light is born, manipulated, and transmitted without ever leaving the fiber environment, with precise control over the polarization rotation and pulse broadening. The review also covers briefly the nomenclature, classification, potential applications, and the limitations (related, e.g., to the inherent losses) of the NIMs and their impact on the classical electrodynamics, in general, and in designing the cloaking devices, in particular. Recent surge in efforts on invisibility and the cloaking devices seems to have spoiled the researchers worldwide:
Plasmons --the collective oscillations of electrons in conducting materials-- play a pivotal role in nanophotonics because of their ability to couple electronic and photonic degrees of freedom. In particular, plasmons in graphene --the atomically thin carbon material-- offer strong spatial confinement and long lifetimes, accompanied by extraordinary optoelectronic properties derived from its peculiar electronic band structure. Understandably, this material has generated great expectations for its application to enhanced integrated devices. However, an efficient scheme for detecting graphene plasmons remains a challenge. Here we show that extremely compact graphene nanostructures are capable of realizing on-chip electrical detection of single plasmons. Specifically, we predict a twofold increase in the electrical current across a graphene nanostructure junction caused by the excitation of a single plasmon. This effect, which is due to the increase in electron temperature following plasmon decay, should persist during a picosecond time interval characteristic of electron-gas relaxation. We further show that a broad spectral detection range is accessible either by electrically doping the junction or by varying the size of the nanostructure. The proposed graphene plasmometer could find application as a basic component of future optics-free integrated nanoplasmonic devices.
We report the molecular beam epitaxial growth, structure, and electronic measurements of single-crystalline LaAuSb films on Al$_2$O$_3$ (0001) substrates. LaAuSb belongs to a broad family of hexagonal $ABC$ intermetallics in which the magnitude and sign of layer buckling have strong effects on properties, e.g., predicted hyperferroelecticity, polar metallicity, and Weyl and Dirac states. Scanning transmission electron microscopy reveals highly buckled planes of Au-Sb atoms, with strong interlayer Au-Au interactions and a doubling of the unit cell. This buckling is four times larger than the buckling observed in other $ABC$s with similar composition, e.g. LaAuGe and LaPtSb. Photoemission spectroscopy measurements and comparison with theory suggest an electronic driving force for the Au-Au dimerization, since LaAuSb, with a 19-electron count, has one more valence electron per formula unit than most stable $ABC$s. Our results suggest that the electron count, in addition to conventional parameters such as epitaxial strain and chemical pressure, provides a powerful means for tuning the layer buckling in ferroic $ABC$s.
We analyze the evolution of the normal and superconducting electronic properties in epitaxial TiN films, characterized by high Ioffe-Regel parameter values, as a function of the film thickness. As the film thickness decreases, we observe an increase of in the residual resistivity, which becomes dominated by diffusive surface scattering for $dleq20,$nm. At the same time, a substantial thickness-dependent reduction of the superconducting critical temperature is observed compared to the bulk TiN value. In such a high quality material films, this effect can be explained by a weak magnetic disorder residing in the surface layer with a characteristic magnetic defect density of $sim10^{12},mathrm{cm}^{-2}$. Our results suggest that surface magnetic disorder is generally present in oxidized TiN films.
We report on a theoretical study of collective electronic excitations in single-layer antimony crystals (antimonene), a novel two-dimensional semiconductor with strong spin-orbit coupling. Based on a tight-binding model, we consider electron-doped antimonene and demonstrate that the combination of spin-orbit effects with external bias gives rise to peculiar plasmon excitations in the mid-infrared spectral range. These excitations are characterized by low losses and negative dispersion at frequencies effectively tunable by doping and bias voltage. The observed behavior is attributed to the spin-splitting of the conduction band, which induces interband resonances, affecting the collective excitations. Our findings open up the possibility to develop plasmonic and optoelectronic devices with high tunability, operating in a technologically relevant spectral range.