Comprehensive Surface-Wave Description for the Nano-scale Energy Concentration with Resonant Dipole Antennas

• Published in: Plasmonics (Norwell, Mass.) Vol. 11; no. 4; pp. 1025 - 1033
• Main Authors: Jia, Hongwei, Lalanne, Philippe, Liu, Haitao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.08.2016; Springer Verlag
• Subjects: Biochemistry; Biological and Medical Physics; Biophysics; Biotechnology; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Nanotechnology; Optics; Physics; Nano-scale energy concentration; Surface plasmon polaritons; Resonant dipole antennas; Surface waves
• ISSN: 1557-1955; 1557-1963
• DOI: 10.1007/s11468-015-0138-5

Resonant optical dipole nano-antennas allow giant field enhancement within nano-gaps. To show how the energy of external illumination waves is delivered and concentrated in nano-gaps, we build up a model by considering the dynamical launching and multiple scattering processes of surface plasmon polaritions (SPPs) on both antenna arms. The model captures the main feature of the antenna resonance as evidenced by comparison of the model prediction with fully vectorial numerical results and provides an intuitive picture that the energy of external wave is initially transferred into SPP and is then coupled into the nano-gap. The enhanced field in the nano-gap oscillates quasi-periodically with the increase of the antenna-arm length, and the resonance peaks can be predicted with a phase-matching condition derived from the model, showing that antenna resonance is due to a constructive interference of the multiple-scattered SPPs. Analytical equation for determining the complex resonance wavelength and the quality factor of the resonant modes is obtained. The model however exhibits observable deviation from fully vectorial numerical results for the lowest resonance order (for antenna with the shortest arms), evidencing that, for this case, surface waves other than SPPs contribute to the antenna resonance. The present results are helpful for clarifying the underlying physics for the energy concentration with resonant dipole antennas and may provide recipes for intuitive design of antenna devices, such as those used for optical nonlinearity enhancement and biochemical sensing.