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When assembled in periodic arrangements, metallic nanostructures (NSs) support plasmonic surface lattice (SL) resonances resulting from long-range interactions these surface lattice resonances differ radically from localized surface plasmon (LSP). Similarly to the hybridization of LSP resonances, observed in short-range interactions, we demonstrate the possibility to generate a hybridization of surface lattice (SL) plasmon resonances, by the excitation of grazing order diffraction within the metasurface. This hybridization leads to the emergence of bonding and anti-bonding modes. If hybridization of LSP modes has been widely described in recent literature, there is still no experimental proof-of-concept reporting such hybridization with SL plasmon resonances. We fill this gap in the present paper by considering surfaces made of binary arrays with unit cells made of two gold disks of distinct diameters. We demonstrate the possibility to maximize or cancel the interaction between the hybridized SL resonances by simply controlling the distance between particles. All our experimental results are supported by FDTD calculations. The hybridization of SL modes results in much richer hybridization scenario in terms of wavelength and quality factor control, compared to a hybridization of LSP in a short-range configuration. It offers unprecedented opportunities to generate innovative optical devices, with high flexible tunability.

The control of magnetic properties at the nanoscale is a current topic of intense research. It was shown that combining both magnetic and plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) led to the improvement of their magneto-optical signal. In this context, common strategies consist of the design of bimetallic NPs. However, the understanding of the physics leading to the coupling between magnetic and plasmonic NPs is lacking, preventing any significant progress for the development of future photonic devices. In this article, we propose to focus our attention on an efficient and commonly used magnetic metal, cobalt, and evaluate its plasmonic properties at the nanoscale through the use of NP regular arrays, as a potential candidate combining both optical and magnetic functionalities within the same metal. We show that such NPs display plasmonic properties within a large spectral range from the UV to the NIR spectral range, with efficient quality factors, when the inter-particle distance is properly selected. These as-fabricated simple materials could find applications in integrated photonic devices for telecommunications.

International audience; We present an FDTD simulation study of a new design of light focusing nano-coupler consisting of a tapered succession of C-shaped silver waveguides. Its operation is based on the use of the fundamental guided mode

In the present paper, a half-wave plate (HWP) based on a birefringent metamaterial is numerically designed to operate in the visible range. The proposed structure consists of an array of double-pattern perpendicular rectangular aperture (RAA) engraved into opaque silver film deposited on a glass substrate. One of the apertures is glass filled. The operating principle of this plate is based on the excitation and the propagation of one guided mode inside each aperture but with different effective index. At the output side, a phase difference is obtained whose value mainly depends on the metal thickness. We have investigated the most simplest configurations using a homemade code based on the finite difference time domain method to design a half-plate with optimized efficiency resulting in transmission coefficient of more than $60\%$ together with a birefringence of $2.1$ at an operation wavelength of 737 nm. This kind of anisotropic metasurface promises a wide range of applications in integrated photonics., pages, 8 figures, Original paper

International audience; Long-range interaction in regular metallic nanostructure arrays can provide the possibility to manipulate their optical properties, governed by the excitation of localized surface plasmon (LSP) resonances. When assembling the nanoparticles in an array, interactions between nanoparticles can result in a strong electromagnetic coupling for specific grating constants. Such a grating effect leads to narrow LSP peaks due to the emergence of new radiative orders in the plane of the substrate, and thus, an important improvement of the intensity of the local electric field. In this work, we report on the optical study of LSP modes supported by square arrays of gold nanodiscs deposited on an indium tin oxyde (ITO) coated glass substrate, and its impact on the surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) of a molecular adsorbate, the mercapto benzoic acid (4-MBA). We estimated the Raman gain of these molecules, by varying the grating constant and the refractive index of the surrounding medium of the superstrate, from an asymmetric medium (air) to a symmetric one (oil). We show that the Raman gain can be improved with one order of magnitude in a symmetric medium compared to SERS experiments in air, by considering the appropriate grating constant. Our experimental results are supported by FDTD calculations, and confirm the importance of the grating effect in the design of SERS substrates.

Plasmonic nanostructures arranged in regular arrays support lattice plasmon modes. Such arrays supporting lattice modes can provide improved platforms in the context of non-linear optics, molecular sensing, plasmon-based lasers, or surface enhanced spectroscopies. These lattice modes are characterized by a reduced linewidth of the resonance and an important improvement in its quality factor. In this work, we discuss the impact of these particular resonances on the far-field plasmonic response, in relation to their near-field optical properties. In particular, our results evidence that for inter-particle distances higher than a critical grating constant, the maximum of near-field enhancement is blue-shifted compared to the far-field localized surface plasmon wavelength, which is the opposite of the usual trend.

International audience; The objective of this work is to develop a code based on the finite difference time domain method in cylindrical coordinates (CC-FDTD) that integrates the Drude Critical Points model (DCP) and to apply it in the study of a metallic C-shaped waveguide (CSWG). The integrated dispersion model allows an accurate description of noble metals in the optical range and working in cylindrical coordinates is necessary to bypass the staircase effect induced by a Cartesian mesh especially in the case of curved geometrical forms. The CC-FDTD code developed as a part of this work is more general than the Body-Of-Revolution-FDTD algorithm that can only handle structures exhibiting a complete cylindrical symmetry. A N-order CC-FDTD code is then derived and used to perform a parametric study of an infinitly-long CSWG for nano-optic applications. Propagation losses and dispersion diagrams are given for different geometrical parameters.

International audience; Acousto-optical modulators usually rely on coherent diffraction of light by a moving acoustic wave, leading to bulky devices with a long interaction length. We propose a subwavelength acousto-optical structure that instead relies on a double resonance to achieve strong modulation at near-infrared wavelengths. A periodic array of metal ridges on a piezoelectric substrate defines cavities that create a resonant dip in the optical transmission spectrum. The ridges simultaneously support large flexural vibrations when resonantly excited by a radio-frequency signal, effectively deforming the cavities and leading to strongly nonlinear acousto-optical modulation. The nano-optical structure could find applications in highly compact photonic devices.

International audience; This theoretical work reports a parametric study of enhanced transmission through annular aperture array (AAA) structure arranged in a triangular lattice. The effect of the incidence angle in addition to the inner and outer radii values on the evolution of the transmission spectra is carried out. To this end, a 3D Finite-Difference Time-Domain code based on the Split Field Method (SFM) is used to calculate the spectral response of the structure for any angle of incidence. In order to work through an orthogonal unit cell which presents the advantage to reduce time and space of computation, special periodic boundary conditions are implemented. This study provides a new modeling of AAA structures useful for producing tunable ultra-compact devices.

We demonstrate a method to reduce the mode volume of optical micro/nanocavities by positioning an opaque microtip in close proximity of the structures. This concept is used to blueshift the resonance of an active photonic crystal nanocavity by up to 16 nm. This tuning range is shown to be about 10 times larger than the redshift achieved with a bare dielectric microtip of the same size and shape. By imagining materials or multilayered devices with the ability to become transparent and opaque under external control, the blue and redshifts of the resonance would become possible with a single perturbing device. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.

International audience; We describe the implementation of the critical points model in a finite-difference-time-domain code working in oblique incidence and dealing with dispersive media through the split field method. Some tests are presented to validate our code in addition to an application devoted to plasmon resonance of a gold nanoparticles grating.

International audience; This paper presents a theoretical study showing the mechanism of light transmission through opaque metallic films perforated with nanocoaxial apertures thanks to the excitation of their cutoff-free TEM (Transverse ElectroMagnetic) guided mode. Full three-dimensional Finite Difference Time Domain (3D-FDTD) together with a Body-Of-Revolution FDTD simulation results are presented and discussed in order to optimize this extraordinary transmission. Very promising findings are pointed out opening the path to the design of new devices for both nano-optic and photovoltaic applications.

We extend here the finite-difference-time-domain (FDTD) algorithm working in oblique incidence to dispersive media. The split-field method (SFM) is used and adapted for taking into account the metal dispersion. The additional equations to the FDTD algorithm are given. Instead of the 24 field components usually used in the SFM, 38 and 112 field components are needed to implement the cases of Drude and Drude-Lorentz dispersion models, respectively. Some tests are presented to validate our code as long as the angle of incidence is lower than $76\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}$ in addition to an application dealing with enhanced transmission and showing original results.

International audience; The study of periodic structures illuminated by a normally incident plane wave is a simple task that can be numerically simulated by the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. On the contrary, for off-normal incidence, a widely modified algorithm must be developed in order to bypass the frequency dependence appearing in the periodic boundary conditions. After recently implementing this FDTD algorithm for pure dielectric materials, we here extend it to the study of metallic structures where dispersion can be described by analytical models. The accuracy of our code is demonstrated through comparisons with already-published results in the case of 1D and 3D structures.

International audience; We theoretically demonstrate the possibility of obtaining nanosources through an original schema based on the generation of the radially polarized surface plasmon mode of a cylindrical metallic tip. This mode has no cutoff radius and can propagate along the tip walls until its nanometric-sized apex. Instead of radiating from the tip end, the guided mode will give rise to a nanospotlight via the well-known antenna effect. 3D calculations demonstrate that both surface plasmon-guided mode and antenna effect are directly involved in the light confinement. Near-field optical microscopy can benefit significantly from this kind of probe because the sample does not need to be directly illuminated.

International audience; The three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain 3D-FDTD method is developed and implemented in the case of oblique incidence in order to study biperiodic structures that are finished according to the third direction. The perfectly matched layer PML is adapted to the developed algorithm. The electromagnetic fields of Maxwell's equations in the main grid and in the PML media are transferred from the E-H domain to the mapped P-Q domain. The modified Maxwell's equations are implemented by the split-field method SFM. Several tests are made and presented in order to verify and demonstrate the accuracy of our codes. The obtained results are in good agreement with published ones obtained by other methods. The originality of this paper comes, first from the fact that it brings a complete development of the used algorithm, and second, from the study of the spectral response of a radar dome based on annular aperture arrays perforated into a perfect conductor plate.

In this work, we aim to increase the emission of the standard guest-host organic light emitting diode (OLED) thanks to localized surface plasmon and to investigate this effect in a microcavity. As a first step, we consider thermal deposition of silver clusters within an OLED guest-host stack. We investigate both the influence of the size of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) and their position within the OLED heterostructure. Secondly, we study the optimized OLED within a microcavity formed by Al-cathode top mirror and a Distributed Bragg Reflector (DBR) bottom mirror. The experimental results show a substantial enhancement of the electroluminescence (EL) intensity as well as a reduction of the spectral width at a half maximum.

International audience; A theoretical investigation is presented of the mode propagation and attenuation in a nanometric coaxial waveguide in real metal. By a rapid comparison with other structures, it is established that a coaxial waveguide has propagative modes with very interesting properties: the cutoff wavelengths are very large, they become larger when a perfectly electric conductor is replaced by gold or silver (real metal), and they can be increased when the outer and inner radii are very close one to other. By studying dispersion curves and field structures, it is shown that surface plasmon modes are responsible for these properties. By simply changing the geometrical parameters of the structure, a very large effective index and very low group velocities could be obtained. We also establish that, in spite of the metal losses, a reasonable large propagation length could be obtained (50 µm) which should allow applications for guiding light in nano-optics.

We demonstrate enhanced transmission through annular aperture arrays (AAA) by the excitation of the transverse electromagnetic () guided mode. A complete numerical study is performed to correctly design the structure before it is experimentally characterized. Actually, the challenge was to get efficient -based transmission in the visible range. It turned out to be a hard task because of the strong absorption associated with this guided mode. Nevertheless, we have succeeded to experimentally prove its excitation thanks to the enhanced transmission measured in the far-field. This is the first time we demonstrate experimental evidence of this phenomenon with such AAA structure illuminated at oblique incidence in the visible range. This increases the potential applications of such structures as well, single molecule spectroscopy, photovoltaic, spectral filtering, optical trapping, etc...

Recently a new structure showing a super-enhanced transmission [Optics Commun. 209, 17–22 (2002); Phys. Rev. B, 67, 155314, (2003)] has been proposed. The origin of this phenomenon was not clearly explained. In this paper, by using a numerical Order-N FDTD spectral method, we study the eigenmodes, the band structure and the dispersion curves of a photonic 2-D crystal made with coaxial circular cavities and made from a real metal. We show that the super-enhanced transmission of the finite structure is due to a cavity resonance of a single guided mode. An extensive characterization of this mode is presented, in terms of the spatial mode structure and effective index dispersion curve.

International audience; We present here the fabrication and the optical characterization of slanted annular aperture arrays engraved into silver film. An experimental enhanced transmission based on the excitation of the cutoff-less plasmonic guided mode of the nano-waveguides (the transmission electron microscopy mode) is demonstrated and agrees well with the theoretical predicted results. By the way, even if it is less efficient (70% → 20%), an enhanced transmission can occur at larger wavelength value (720 nm-930 nm) compared to conventional annular aperture arrays structure by correctly setting the metal thickness.