Optical frequency mixing through nanoantenna enhanced difference frequency generation: Metatronic mixer

Abstract

A design for a subwavelength all-optical frequency mixer is proposed. The method relies on enhanced difference-frequency generation, which is achieved in two steps with the help of plasmonic nanoantennas. The interaction of the two input signals with the nonlinear material is increased through the use of input nanoantennas, which focus the incident energy of two different frequencies onto the nanoparticle formed by a nonlinear material. Next, the difference-frequency emission is enhanced through the Purcell effect by the use of a separate output nanoantenna that is resonant at the difference frequency. The application of this twofold approach allows for a significant enhancement in the difference-frequency generation efficiency. Simulation results are presented highlighting the features of the method. This multi-element nanostructure is indeed an optical mixer circuit element in the metatronic paradigm. A design for a subwavelength all-optical frequency mixer is proposed. The method relies on enhanced difference-frequency generation, which is achieved in two steps with the help of plasmonic nanoantennas. The interaction of the two input signals with the nonlinear material is increased through the use of input nanoantennas, which focus the incident energy of two different frequencies onto the nanoparticle formed by a nonlinear material. Next, the difference-frequency emission is enhanced through the Purcell effect by the use of a separate output nanoantenna that is resonant at the difference frequency. The application of this twofold approach allows for a significant enhancement in the difference-frequency generation efficiency. Simulation results are presented highlighting the features of the method. This multi-element nanostructure is indeed an optical mixer circuit element in the metatronic paradigm. Disciplines Electrical and Computer Engineering

Hybrid nanophotonics

“…Они обладают огромным прикладным потенциалом в различных областях: от фотовольтаики [13][14][15][16][17] и оптической обработки информации [2,5, [18][19][20] до микроскопии со сверхразрешением в биологии [21][22][23][24][25] и терапии онкологических заболеваний в медицине [26][27][28][29][30]. Недавние исследования показали, что наноантенны позволяют создавать источники одиночных фотонов [31][32][33][34][35], нанолазеры [36][37][38][39][40], а также эффективные преобразователи видимого и ближнего инфракрасного излучения в среднее и дальнее инфракрасное [41,42]. Такой широкий спектр практических применений наноантенн и наноструктур, состоящих из них, обеспечивается за счет их способности к эффективному преобразованию свободно распространяющихся волн в ближнее электромагнитное поле и многократному увеличению интенсивности поля в субволновых областях [43][44][45].…”

Near-field spatial mapping of strongly interacting multiple plasmonic infrared antennas

“…[6][7][8][9][10][11] Since the local plasmon near-field distribution determines the effectiveness of antennas, their investigation has been the focus of several studies using techniques that involve either electrons 12,13 or photons. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20] These techniques have explored a number of parameters, including imaging of geometryrelated spatial patterns of antenna resonances, intensity characterization of hotspots, 4,21,22 energy-resolved plasmon eigenmodes, 23,24 multi-photon photoluminescence, 17,19 harmonic generation or frequency mixing, 18,25,26 and emission patterns of nanoantennas. 27,28 To achieve improved structures with superior function, de- † Electronic Supplementary signs that involve multiple nanoantenna components that are near-field coupled to each other are required.…”

Plasmon gap mode-assisted third-harmonic generation from metal film-coupled nanowires

“…This opens a question for the design of systems with much improved out-coupling efficiency for higher system performance. 25,26 This work was supported by NSFC (Nos. 91233119 …”

“…This brings an open and crucial question for plasmonic nonlinear systems, i.e., how to couple efficiently the generated strong harmonic light out of the device and suppress the metallic absorption loss, 25,26 i.e., the key reason for the experimentally observed low nonlinear generation efficiency. 11,12 The source power density could be calculated as P x .…”