Active tuning of the Fano resonance from a Si nanosphere dimer by the substrate effect

Near-infrared toroidal dipole response supported by silicon metasurfaces

The dielectric metasurfaces supporting non-radiative toroidal dipole resonances play important roles in nanophotonics. In this paper, toroidal dipole resonances using a double-axe nanostructure array in the near-infrared region are theoretically investigated by the characterization of the near-field distribution and far-field scattering. An experimental quality factor of 261 is obtained at the resonant wavelength of 1498 nm.

Dielectric optical nanoantennas

Nanophotonics allows the manipulation of light on the subwavelength scale. Optical nanoantennas are nanoscale elements that enable increased resolution in bioimaging, novel photon sources, solar cells with higher absorption, and the detection of fluorescence from a single molecule. While plasmonic nanoantennas have been extensively explored in the literature, dielectric nanoantennas have several advantages over their plasmonic counterparts, including low dissipative losses and near-field enhancement of both electric and magnetic fields. Nanoantennas increase the optical density of states, which increase the rate of spontaneous emission due to the Purcell effect. The increase is quantified by the Purcell factor, which depends on the mode volume and the quality factor. It is one of the main performance parameters for nanoantennas. One particularly interesting feature of dielectric nanoantennas is the possibility of integrating them into optical resonators with a high quality-factor, further improving the performance of the nanoantennas and giving very high Purcell factors. This review introduces the properties and parameters of dielectric optical nanoantennas, and gives a classification of the nanoantennas based on the number and shape of the nanoantenna elements. An overview of recent progress in the field is provided, and a simulation is included as an example. The simulated nanoantenna, a dimer consisting of two silicon nanospheres separated by a gap, is shown to have a very small mode volume, but a low quality-factor. Some recent works on photonic crystal resonators are reviewed, including one that includes a nanoantenna in the bowtie unit-cell. This results in an enormous increase in the calculated Purcell factor, from 200 for the example dimer, to 8 × 10⁶ for the photonic crystal resonator. Some applications of dielectric nanoantennas are described. With current progress in the field, it is expected that the number of applications will grow and that nanoantennas will be incorporated into new commercial products. A list of relevant materials with high refractive indexes and low losses is presented and discussed. Finally, prospects and major challenges for dielectric nanoantennas are addressed.

A Review on Metamaterials for Device Applications

Metamaterials are the major type of artificially engineered materials which exhibit naturally unobtainable properties according to how their microarchitectures are engineered. Owing to their unique and controllable effective properties, including electric permittivity and magnetic permeability, the metamaterials play a vital role in the development of meta-devices. Therefore, the recent research has mainly focused on shifting towards achieving tunable, switchable, nonlinear, and sensing functionalities. In this review, we summarize the recent progress in terahertz, microwave electromagnetic, and photonic metamaterials, and their applications. The review also encompasses the role of metamaterials in the advancement of microwave sensors, photonic devices, antennas, energy harvesting, and superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs).

Tunable Fano Resonances in an Ultra-Small Gap

A Fano resonance is experimentally observed in a single silver nanocube separated from a supporting silver film by a thin aluminum oxide film. The resonance spectrum is modulated by changing the size of the silver nanocube and its distance from the silver film. The system is fabricated by a bottom-up process with an accurately controlled nanogap at the sub-6-nm scale. The simulation result shows that the destructive interference between the dipole mode and the quadrupole mode in this “nanocube on mirror” (NCoM) structure is responsible for the resonance. The spectra red-shifted as the size of the silver nanocube increased and its distance from the silver film decreased. In addition, a refractive index sensitivity of the spectrum of 140 meV/RIU (refractive index unit), with a 2.4 figure of merit, is obtained by changing the dielectric environment around the silver nanocube. This work will enable the development of high-performance tunable optical nanodevices based on NCoM structures.