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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 739 records · Page 41
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

Plasmonic Roche lobe in metal-dielectric-metal structure

This study investigates a plasmonic Roche lobe that is based on a metal-dielectric-metal (MDM) structure using finite-difference time-domain simulations and theoretical analyses. The effective refractive index of the MDM structure has two centers and is inversely proportional to the distance from the position of interest to the centers, in a manner that is analogous to the gravitational potential in a two-star system. The motion of surface plasmons (SPs) strongly depends on the ratio of permittivities at the two centers. The Lagrange point is an unstable equilibrium point for SPs that propagate in the system. After the SPs have passed through the Lagrange point, their spread drastically increases.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2013

Plasmonic waves of a semi-infinite random nanocomposite

The dispersion curves of the plasmonic waves of a semi-infinite random metal-dielectric nanocomposite, consisting of bulk metal embedded with dielectric inclusions, are presented. Two branches of p-polarized surface plasmon-polariton modes are found to exist. The possibility of experimentally observing the surface waves by attenuated total reflection is demonstrated.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2013

Ultrastrong coupling of intersubband plasmons and terahertz metamaterials

We report on the ultrastrong-coupling between localized plasmons of a planar terahertz metamaterial and intersubband plasmons in a modulation doped quantum well sample. Such a system exhibits the formation of a lower and an upper polariton branch when the metamaterial eigenfrequency is tuned close to resonance with the intersubband transition. We achieve a normalized polariton splitting of 22% and a polaritonic gap of 2.4% of the intersubband transition frequency. In addition to the usual geometrical scaling, we demonstrate the effective tuning of the metamaterial resonance by dry etching with a tuning range of more than 1 THz.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2013

Attosecond x-ray source generation from two-color polarized gating plasmonic field enhancement

The plasmonic field enhancement from the vicinity of metallic nanostructures as well as the polarization gating technique has been utilized to the generation of the high order harmonic and the single attosecond x-ray source. Through numerical solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation, for moderate the inhomogeneity and the polarized angle of the two fields, we find that not only the harmonic plateau has been extended and enhanced but also the single short quantum path has been selected to contribute to the harmonic. As a result, a series of 50 as pulses around the extreme ultraviolet and the x-ray regions have been obtained. Furthermore, by investigating the other parameters effects on the harmonic emission, we find that this two-color polarized gating plasmonic field enhancement scheme can also be achieved by the multi-cycle pulses, which is much better for experimental realization.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

An effective medium study of surface plasmon polaritons in nanostructured gratings using attenuated total reflection

Recent work studied surface plasmon resonances in structured materials by the method of attenuated total reflection using a prism on top of a metallic grating. That calculation considered Transverse Magnetic polarized radiation, involved an expansion in 121 Fourier modes, and found a number of interesting features. Many of these features were attributed to localized plasmons or other factors, which arise from a discrete structure. We use a simple effective medium theory to address the same problem, and find many of the same reflection features observed in the more complex calculation, indicating that localization is not an important factor. We also evaluate the possibility of using some of the new features in the reflection spectrum for bio-sensing and find that the sensitivity of the system to small changes in relative permittivity is increased compared to some standard methods.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Silicon-on-nitride structures for mid-infrared gap-plasmon waveguiding

Silicon-on-nitride (SON) is a convenient, low-loss platform for mid-infrared group IV plasmonics and photonics. We have designed 5-layer SON channel-waveguides and slab-waveguides for the 2.0 to 5.4 μm wavelength range and have simulated the resulting three-dimensional (3D) and two-dimensional (2D) SON gap-plasmon modes. Our simulations show propagation lengths of ∼60 μm for 3D gap-strip modes having a 0.003 λ{sup 2} cross-section. Because the ∼50-nm SON (Si{sub 3}N{sub 4}) mode region is also a gate insulator between silver (Ag) and n-doped Silicon (Si), metal-oxide-semiconductor accumulation gating is available for electro-optical loss modulation of the gap-confined mode.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Surface-plasmons lasing in double-graphene-layer structures

We consider the concept of injection terahertz lasers based on double-graphene-layer (double-GL) structures with metal surface-plasmon waveguide and study the conditions of their operation. The laser under consideration exploits the resonant radiative transitions between GLs. This enables the double-GL laser room temperature operation and the possibility of voltage tuning of the emission spectrum. We compare the characteristics of the double-GL lasers with the metal surface-plasmon waveguides with those of such laser with the metal-metal waveguides.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Plasmonic nanogaps for broadband and large spontaneous emission rate enhancement

We present the optical properties of a plasmonic nanogap formed between a silver metallic nanoparticle and an extended silver film that shows a strong enhancement in the spontaneous emission rate over the whole visible range. In particular, we use three-dimensional finite difference time domain calculations to study the spontaneous emission rate and the quantum efficiency of an emitting material placed within the gap region as a function of the geometrical parameters of the plasmonic nanogap. Our calculations reveal that the enhancements in the total decay rate can be divided into two regions as a function of wavelength; region I spans the wavelength range from 350 nm to 500 nm and peaks at approximately at 400 nm. Region II covers the spectral range between 500 nm and 1000 nm. The enhancements in total decay rate in region I are mainly dominated by Ohmic losses by the metal, while the enhancements in total decay rate in region II are mainly dominated by radiative decay rate enhancements. Furthermore, our calculations show over 100 times enhancement in the spontaneous emission rate in region II. We combine this with quantum efficiency enhancements of almost 30 times from materials with low intrinsic quantum efficiencies and only a small reduction in efficiency from those with high intrinsic quantum efficiencies. All results appear easily achievable using realistic geometrical parameters and simple synthesis techniques. These results are attributed to the strong field confinements in the nanogap region. The structures are of high interest for both the fundamental understanding of light mater interactions under extreme electromagnetic field confinements and also potential applications in quantum optics and Raman spectroscopy.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Diffraction-induced subradiant transverse-magnetic lattice plasmon modes in metal nanoparticle arrays

This Letter reports theoretical and experimental study of transverse-magnetic-like lattice plasmon modes originating from diffraction in periodic two dimensional arrays of metal nanoparticles. These modes lead to the transmission and reflection spectra exhibiting narrow linewidth Fano-like resonances which can appear as maxima, minima, or can have asymmetric peak-and-dip profile. The dependencies of the position and lineshape of the resonance on the lattice periodicity and angle of incidence are investigated. Numerical simulations of electric field distributions for different excitation conditions of lattice plasmon modes are also performed.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Plasmon-enhanced UV photocatalysis

We report plasmonic nanoparticle enhanced photocatalysis on titanium dioxide (TiO{sub 2}) in the deep-UV range. Aluminum (Al) nanoparticles fabricated on TiO{sub 2} film increases the reaction rate of photocatalysis by factors as high as 14 under UV irradiation in the range of 260–340 nm. The reaction efficiency has been determined by measuring the decolorization rate of methylene blue applied on the TiO{sub 2} substrate. The enhancement of photocatalysis shows particle size and excitation wavelength dependence, which can be explained by the surface plasmon resonance of Al nanoparticles.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Tunable and angle-insensitive plasmon resonances in graphene ribbon arrays with multispectral diffraction response

Plasmon resonances in graphene ribbon arrays are investigated numerically by means of the Finite Element Method. Numerical analysis shows that a series of multipolar resonances take place when graphene ribbon arrays are illuminated by a TM polarized electromagnetic wave. Moreover, these resonances are angle-independent, and can be tuned greatly by the width and the doping level of the graphene ribbons. Specifically, we demonstrate that for graphene arrays with several sets of graphene ribbons, which have different widths or doping levels, each of these multipolar resonances will be split into several ones. In addition, as plasmon resonances can confine electromagnetic field at the ribbon edges, graphene ribbons with different widths or doping levels offer intriguing application for electrically tunable spectral imaging.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Photoluminescence enhancement of the single InAs quantum dots through plasmonic Au island films

The approach of optical positioning the single InAs quantum dots (QDs) was used for investigating QD photoluminescence (PL) enhancement based on plasmonic effect of nanometer-sized Au island films. It is found that the maximum increase of QD PL intensity is about thirty-eight fold after 5-nm thick Au island films are evaporated on the QD sample surface. The enhanced localized excitation field and increased QD radiative decay rate are responsible for this PL enhancement. This provides an alternative way of preparing bright single photon sources based on the plasmonic effect.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Plasmonic emission enhancement of colloidal quantum dots in the presence of bimetallic nanoparticles

We studied plasmonic features of bimetallic nanostructures consisting of gold nanoisland cores semi-coated with a chromium layer and explored how they influence emission of CdSe/ZnS quantum dots. We showed that, compared with chromium-covered glass substrates without the gold cores, the bimetallic nanostructures could significantly enhance the emission of the quantum dots. We studied the impact of the excitation intensity and thickness of the chromium layer on this process and utilized numerical means to identify the mechanisms behind it. Our results suggest that when the chromium layer is thin, the enhancement process is the result of the bimetallic plasmonic features of the nanostructures. As the chromium layer becomes thick, the impact of the gold cores is screened and the enhancement mostly happens mostly via the field enhancement of chromium nanoparticles in the absence of significant energy transfer from the quantum dots to these nanoparticles.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

High performing phase-based surface plasmon resonance sensing from metallic nanohole arrays

We show the spectral figure-of-merit (FOM) from nanohole arrays can be larger than 1900/RIU by phase-based surface plasmon resonance. By using temporal coupled mode theory, we find the p-s polarization phase jump is the sharpest when both the absorption and radiative decay rates of surface plasmon polaritons are matched, yielding an extremely small spectral differential phase linewidth and thus superior FOM. The result is supported by numerical simulation and experiment. As a demonstration, we show the phase detection outperforms the conventional spectral counterpart significantly by sensing the binding of bovine serum albumin antibodies under identical condition.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Plasmonic terahertz detectors based on a high-electron mobility GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure

In order to characterize magnetic field (B) tunable THz plasmonic detectors, spectroscopy experiments were carried out at liquid helium temperatures and high magnetic fields on devices fabricated on a high electron mobility GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure. The samples were either gated (the gate of a meander shape) or ungated. Spectra of a photovoltage generated by THz radiation were obtained as a function of B at a fixed THz excitation from a THz laser or as a function of THz photon frequency at a fixed B with a Fourier spectrometer. In the first type of measurements, the wave vector of magnetoplasmons excited was defined by geometrical features of samples. It was also found that the magnetoplasmon spectrum depended on the gate geometry which gives an additional parameter to control plasma excitations in THz detectors. Fourier spectra showed a strong dependence of the magnetoplasmon resonance amplitude on the conduction-band electron filling factor which was explained within a model of the electron gas heating with THz radiation. The study allows to define both the advantages and limitations of plasmonic devices based on high-mobility GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures for THz detection at low temperatures and high magnetic fields.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Plasmonic crystal enhanced refractive index sensing

We demonstrate experimentally how the local anisotropy of the dispersion relation of surface plasmon modes propagating over periodic metal gratings can lead to an enhancement of the figure of merit of refractive index sensors. Exploiting the possibility to acquire defocused images of the Fourier space of a highly stable leakage radiation microscope, we report a twofold increase in sensing sensitivity close to the band gap of a one-dimensional plasmonic crystal where the anisotropy of the band structure is the most important. A practical sensing resolution of O(10{sup −6}) refractive index units is demonstrated.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Current-driven detection of terahertz radiation using a dual-grating-gate plasmonic detector

We report on the detection of terahertz radiation by an on-chip planar asymmetric plasmonic structure in the frequency region above one terahertz. The detector is based on a field-effect transistor that has a dual grating gate structure with an asymmetric unit cell, which provides a geometrical asymmetry within the structure. Biasing the detector with a dc source-to-drain current in the linear region of the current-voltage characteristic introduces an additional asymmetry (electrical asymmetry) that enhances the detector responsivity by more than one order of magnitude (by a factor of 20) as compared with the unbiased case due to the cooperative effect of the geometrical and electrical asymmetries. In addition to the responsivity enhancement, we report a relatively low noise equivalent power and a peculiar non-monotonic dependence of the responsivity on the frequency, which results from the multi-plasmonic-cavity structure of the device.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2014

Dynamic plasmonic beam shaping by vector beams with arbitrary locally linear polarization states

Vector beams, which have space-variant state of polarization (SOP) comparing with scalar beams with spatially homogeneous SOP, are used to manipulate surface plasmon polarizations (SPPs). We find that the excitation, orientation, and distribution of the focused SPPs excited in a high numerical aperture microscopic configuration highly depend on the space-variant polarization of the incident vector beam. When it comes to vector beam with axial symmetry, multi-foci of SPPs with the same size and uniform intensity can be obtained, and the number of foci is depending on the polarization order n. Those properties can be of great value in biological sensor and plasmonic tweezers applications.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗