Optical antenna enhanced spontaneous emission
Abstract
Atoms and molecules are too small to act as efficient antennas for their own emission wavelengths. By providing an external optical antenna, the balance can be shifted; spontaneous emission could become faster than stimulated emission, which is handicapped by practically achievable pump intensities. In our experiments, InGaAsP nanorods emitting at ~200 THz optical frequency show a spontaneous emission intensity enhancement of 35 × corresponding to a spontaneous emission rate speedup ~115 ×, for antenna gap spacing, d = 40 nm. Classical antenna theory predicts ~2,500 × spontaneous emission speedup at d ~10 nm, proportional to 1/d2. Unfortunately, at d < 10 nm, antenna efficiency drops below 50%, owing to optical spreading resistance, exacerbated by the anomalous skin effect (electron surface collisions). Quantum dipole oscillations in the emitter excited state produce an optical ac equivalent circuit current, I(o) = qω|x(o)|/d, feeding the antenna-enhanced spontaneous emission, where q|x(o)| is the dipole matrix element. Despite the quantum-mechanical origin of the drive current, antenna theory makes no reference to the Purcell effect nor to local density of states models. Additionally, plasmonic effects are minor at 200 THz, producing only a small shift of antenna resonance frequency.
- Authors:
-
- Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, and
- Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent, Holmdel, NJ 07733
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1235502
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1347700
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Journal Volume: 112 Journal Issue: 6; Journal ID: ISSN 0027-8424
- Publisher:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS; 77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY; metal optics; nanophotonics; plasmonics; ultrafast devices
Citation Formats
Eggleston, Michael S., Messer, Kevin, Zhang, Liming, Yablonovitch, Eli, and Wu, Ming C. Optical antenna enhanced spontaneous emission. United States: N. p., 2015.
Web. doi:10.1073/pnas.1423294112.
Eggleston, Michael S., Messer, Kevin, Zhang, Liming, Yablonovitch, Eli, & Wu, Ming C. Optical antenna enhanced spontaneous emission. United States. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1423294112
Eggleston, Michael S., Messer, Kevin, Zhang, Liming, Yablonovitch, Eli, and Wu, Ming C. Mon .
"Optical antenna enhanced spontaneous emission". United States. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1423294112.
@article{osti_1235502,
title = {Optical antenna enhanced spontaneous emission},
author = {Eggleston, Michael S. and Messer, Kevin and Zhang, Liming and Yablonovitch, Eli and Wu, Ming C.},
abstractNote = {Atoms and molecules are too small to act as efficient antennas for their own emission wavelengths. By providing an external optical antenna, the balance can be shifted; spontaneous emission could become faster than stimulated emission, which is handicapped by practically achievable pump intensities. In our experiments, InGaAsP nanorods emitting at ~200 THz optical frequency show a spontaneous emission intensity enhancement of 35 × corresponding to a spontaneous emission rate speedup ~115 ×, for antenna gap spacing, d = 40 nm. Classical antenna theory predicts ~2,500 × spontaneous emission speedup at d ~10 nm, proportional to 1/d2. Unfortunately, at d < 10 nm, antenna efficiency drops below 50%, owing to optical spreading resistance, exacerbated by the anomalous skin effect (electron surface collisions). Quantum dipole oscillations in the emitter excited state produce an optical ac equivalent circuit current, I(o) = qω|x(o)|/d, feeding the antenna-enhanced spontaneous emission, where q|x(o)| is the dipole matrix element. Despite the quantum-mechanical origin of the drive current, antenna theory makes no reference to the Purcell effect nor to local density of states models. Additionally, plasmonic effects are minor at 200 THz, producing only a small shift of antenna resonance frequency.},
doi = {10.1073/pnas.1423294112},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
number = 6,
volume = 112,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jan 26 00:00:00 EST 2015},
month = {Mon Jan 26 00:00:00 EST 2015}
}
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1423294112
Web of Science
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