Bloch oscillations in plasmonic waveguide arrays

Block, Alexander; Etrich, C.; Limboeck, T.; Bleckmann, Felix; Soergel, E.; Rockstuhl, Carsten; Lindén, Stefan

doi:10.1038/ncomms4843

Cited by 107 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…The laser-solid interaction is then described by the laser-driven single-electron motion in this effective periodic potential [33]. This single-electron approach has been very successful in addressing electron dynamics in periodic structures such as Bloch oscillations, Zener tunneling, and Wannier-Stark localization in semiconductor superlattices [34,35], optical lattices [36,37] as well as waveguide arrays [38,39]. We note that the single-electron models are conceptually the closest to the hugely successful single-active-electron treatment of HHG in atomic and molecular gases, which has yielded a number of insights into both the mechanism and control over the harmonic and attosecond pulse generation processes [3,4,[40][41][42][43][44].…”

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confidence: 99%

High-harmonic generation from Bloch electrons in solids

et al. 2015

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We study the generation of high harmonic radiation by Bloch electrons in a model transparent solid driven by a strong mid-infrared laser field. We solve the single-electron time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE) using a velocity-gauge method [New J. Phys. 15, 013006 (2013)] that is numerically stable as the laser intensity and number of energy bands are increased. The resulting harmonic spectrum exhibits a primary plateau due to the coupling of the valence band to the first conduction band, with a cutoff energy that scales linearly with field strength and laser wavelength. We also find a weaker second plateau due to coupling to higher-lying conduction bands, with a cutoff that is also approximately linear in the field strength. To facilitate the analysis of the time-frequency characteristics of the emitted harmonics, we also solve the TDSE in a time-dependent basis set, the Houston states [Phys. Rev. B 33, 5494 (1986)], which allows us to separate inter-band and intra-band contributions to the time-dependent current. We find that the inter-band and intraband contributions display very different time-frequency characteristics. We show that solutions in these two bases are equivalent under an unitary transformation but that, unlike the velocity gauge method, the Houston state treatment is numerically unstable when more than a few low lying energy bands are used.

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confidence: 99%

High-harmonic generation from Bloch electrons in solids

et al. 2015

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“…The confinement of metallic ("free") electrons in twodimensional interfaces can produce powerful effects used to drive electromagnetic (EM) devices like nanoantennas with extremely short wavelength resonance [1,2], metalenses and optical holography [3][4][5], active plasmonic systems [6][7][8], and sub-wavelength Bloch oscillations [9,10]. The key feature for such applications is the creation of waves propagating along a metal-dielectric interface with wavelength shorter than that of the incident radiation, while the waves decay exponentially in the perpendicular direction.…”

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confidence: 99%

Epsilon-near-zero behavior from plasmonic Dirac point: Theory and realization using two-dimensional materials

2016

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The electromagnetic response of a two-dimensional metal embedded in a periodic array of a dielectric host can give rise to a plasmonic Dirac point that emulates epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) behavior. This theoretical result is extremely sensitive to structural features like periodicity of the dielectric medium and thickness imperfections. We propose that such a device can actually be realized by using graphene as the two-dimensional metal and materials like the layered semiconducting transition-metal dichalcogenides or hexagonal boron nitride as the dielectric host. We propose a systematic approach, in terms of design characteristics, for constructing metamaterials with linear, elliptical, and hyperbolic dispersion relations which produce ENZ behavior, normal or negative diffraction. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.94.201404 The confinement of metallic ("free") electrons in twodimensional interfaces can produce powerful effects used to drive electromagnetic (EM) devices like nanoantennas with extremely short wavelength resonance [1,2], metalenses and optical holography [3][4][5], active plasmonic systems [6][7][8], and sub-wavelength Bloch oscillations [9,10]. The key feature for such applications is the creation of waves propagating along a metal-dielectric interface with wavelength shorter than that of the incident radiation, while the waves decay exponentially in the perpendicular direction. This surface effect involves electronic motion (plasmons) coupled with electromagnetic waves (polariton) and is referred to as surface plasmon polariton (SPP). By combining the properties of different materials, it is even possible to produce behavior not found under normal circumstances like negative refraction [11][12][13][14][15][16], epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) [17][18][19], discrete solitons [20,21], and quantum control of light [22,23].The bottleneck in creating SPP devices with any desirable characteristic has been the limitations of typical three-dimensional solids in producing perfect interfaces for the confinement of electrons and the features of dielectric host. This may no longer be a critical issue. The advent of truly two-dimensional (2D) materials like graphene (a metal), transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDC's, semiconductors), and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN, an insulator) make it possible to produce structures with atomic-level control of features in the direction perpendicular to the stacked layers [24][25][26][27]. This is ushering a new era in manipulating the properties of plasmons and designing devices with extraordinary behavior. In particular, 2D structures support plasmons (collective excitations) which fundamentally differ from SPPs, since the charge carriers are restricted in two dimensions [28,29]. Nevertheless, 2D plasmons and SPPs share similarities in field profiles and in dispersion behavior and could be used * mariosmat@seas.harvard.edu; http://scholar.harvard.edu/marios _matthaiakis/home † konstantinos.valagiannopoulos@nu.edu.kz; https://sst.nu.edu.kz /konstantinos-valagiannopoulos/ interchangeably fo...

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“…This oscillation is a plasmonic analogue of the Bloch oscillation of an electronic wave packet in a crystal when a static external field is applied. The linear potential associated with the static external field applied to a crystal was mimicked by a linear increased effective refractive index of the plasmonic waveguide [153]. These findings provide great promise for developing quantum plasmonic devices based on the encoded metallic structures.…”

Section: Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 88%

Light manipulation with encoded plasmonic nanostructures

2014

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-Plasmonics, which allows for manipulation of light field beyond the fundamental diffraction limit, has recently attracted tremendous research efforts. The propagating surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) confined on a metal-dielectric interface provide an ideal two-dimensional (2D) platform to develop subwavelength optical circuits for on-chip information processing and communication. The surface plasmon resonance of rationally designed metallic nanostructures, on the other hand, enables pronounced phase and polarization modulation for light beams travelling in three-dimensional (3D) free space. Flexible 2D and free-space propagating light manipulation can be achieved by encoding plasmonic nanostructures on a 2D surface, promising the design, fabrication and integration of the nextgeneration optical architectures with substantially reduced footprint. It is envisioned that the encoded plasmonic nanostructures can significantly expand available toolboxes for novel light manipulation. In this review, we presents the fundamentals, recent developments and future perspectives in this emerging field, aiming to open up new avenues to developing revolutionary photonic devices.

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Bloch oscillations in plasmonic waveguide arrays

Cited by 107 publications

References 28 publications

High-harmonic generation from Bloch electrons in solids

High-harmonic generation from Bloch electrons in solids

Epsilon-near-zero behavior from plasmonic Dirac point: Theory and realization using two-dimensional materials

Light manipulation with encoded plasmonic nanostructures

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