Modeling and observation of mid-infrared nonlocality in effective epsilon-near-zero ultranarrow coaxial apertures

Abstract

With advances in nanofabrication techniques, extreme-scale nanophotonic devices with critical gap dimensions of just 1–2 nm have been realized. Plasmons in such ultranarrow gaps can exhibit nonlocal response, which was previously shown to limit the field enhancement and cause optical properties to deviate from the local description. Using atomic layer lithography, we create mid-infrared-resonant coaxial apertures with gap sizes as small as 1 nm and observe strong evidence of nonlocality, including spectral shifts and boosted transmittance of the cutoff epsilon-near-zero mode. Experiments are supported by full-wave 3-D nonlocal simulations performed with the hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin method. This numerical method captures atomic-scale variations of the electromagnetic fields while efficiently handling extreme-scale size mismatch. Combining atomic-layer-based fabrication techniques with fast and accurate numerical simulations provides practical routes to design and fabricate highly-efficient large-area mid-infrared sensors, antennas, and metasurfaces.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Oct 02, 2019
Source ID
10.1038/s41467-019-12038-3

Entities

People

  • Cristian Ciracì
  • Daehan Yoo
  • David R. Smith
  • Ferran Vidal-Codina
  • Jaime Peraire
  • Ngoc-cuong Nguyen
  • Sang-Hyun Oh

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • National Science Foundation

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Electromagnetic Wave Scattering and Antenna Radiation Engineering
  • Nanofabrication and Microfabrication.
  • Quantum Dot Semiconductor Device Photonics and Graphene Optoelectronic Materials and THz Physics.