Optical rectification effect due to surface plasmon polaritons at normal incidence in a nondiffraction regime

Photoinduced electric effects in various plasmonic materials

Photoinduced voltages associated with surface plasmon polariton excitations are studied both theoretically and experimentally in various plasmonic systems as the function of material, wavelength, and type of structure. Experimental photovoltage normalized to the absorbed power shows a general decrease upon an increase in the wavelength, enhancement in the nanostructured samples, and a strong variation in the magnitude as a function of the material, which are not in line with the theoretical predictions of the simple plasmonic pressure approach. The results can be used for clarification of the mechanisms and further development of an adequate theoretical approach to the plasmon drag effect.

Revisiting the Photon-Drag Effect in Metal Films

The photon-drag effect, the rectified current in a medium induced by conservation of momentum of absorbed or redirected light, is a unique probe of the detailed mechanisms underlying radiation pressure. We revisit this effect in gold, a canonical Drude metal. We discover that the signal for p-polarized illumination in ambient air is affected in both sign and magnitude by adsorbed molecules, opening previous measurements for reinterpretation. Further, we show that the intrinsic sign of the photon-drag effect is contrary to the prevailing intuitive model of direct momentum transfer to free electrons.

Photon Drag Effect due to Berry Curvature

A theoretical investigation reveals that the photon drag effect (PDE) is induced in a grating slab with deformation by the Berry curvature in phase space. It drifts the momentum of light, and gives asymmetric PDE signals in momentum space. Large PDE signals are observed even near the Γ point. This characteristic agrees well with our theoretical results.

Control of photo-induced voltages in plasmonic crystals via spin-orbit interactions

There is wide interest in understanding and leveraging the nonlinear plasmon-induced potentials of nanostructured materials. We investigate the electrical response produced by spin-polarized light across a large-area bottom-up assembled 2D plasmonic crystal. Numerical approximations of the Lorentz forces provide quantitative agreement with our experimentally-measured DC voltages. We show that the underlying mechanism of the spin-polarized voltages is a gradient force that arises from asymmetric, time-averaged hotspots, whose locations shift with the chirality of light. Finally, we formalize the role of spin-orbit interactions in the shifted intensity patterns and significantly advance our understanding of the physical phenomena, often related to the spin Hall effect of light.

Manipulating photoinduced voltage in metasurface with circularly polarized light

Recently, the concept of metasurface has provided one an unprecedented opportunity and ability to control the light in the deep subwavelength scale. However, so far most efforts are devoted to exploiting the novel scattering properties and applications of metasurface in optics. Here, I theoretically and numerically demonstrate that longitudinal and transverse photoinduced voltages can be simultaneously realized in the proposed metasurface utilizing the magnetic resonance under the normal incidence of circularly polarized light, which may extend the concept and functionality of metasurface into the electronics and may provide a potential scheme to realize a nanoscale tunable voltage source through a nanophotonic roadmap. The signs of longitudinal and transverse photoin-duced voltages can be manipulated by tuning the resonant frequency and the handedness of circularly polarized light, respectively. Analytical formulae of photoinduced voltage are presented based on the theory of symmetry of field. This work may bridge nanophotonics and electronics, expands the capability of metasurface and has many potential applications.

Photo-induced voltage in nano-porous gold thin film

We report an experimental study of generation of photo-induced voltage in nano-porous gold (NPG) thin film under the radiation of obliquely incident nanosecond laser light in visible regions. For s- polarized light, negative voltage is observed along the incident plane for positive incident angles, while for p- polarized light, positive voltage is observed for wavelength longer than 510 nm, while it turns to negative for shorter wavelengths. The transverse voltage for various polarized light is explained in terms of symmetry of configuration and that of microscopically random but macroscopically isotropic NPG.