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We optimize silicon nano-antennas to enhance and steer the emission of local quantum sources. We combine global evolutionary optimization (EO) with frequency domain electrodynamical simulations, and compare design strategies based on resonant and non-resonant building blocks. Specifically, we investigate the performance of models with different degrees of freedom but comparable amount of available material. We find that simpler geometric models allow significantly faster convergence of the optimizer, which, expectedly, comes at the cost of a reduced optical performance. We finally analyze the physical mechanisms underlying the directional emission that also comes with an emission rate enhancement, and find a surprising robustness against perturbations of the source emitter location. This makes the structures highly interesting for actual nano-fabrication. We believe that optimized, all-dielectric silicon nano-antennas have high potential for genuine breakthroughs in a multitude of applications in nanophotonics and quantum technologies., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures

Light emission of europium (Eu3+) ions placed in the vicinity of optically resonant nanoantennas is usually controlled by tailoring the local density of photon states (LDOS). We show that the polarization and shape of the excitation beam can also be used to manipulate light emission, as azimuthally or radially polarized cylindrical vector beam offers to spatially shape the electric and magnetic fields, in addition to the effect of silicon nanorings (Si-NRs) used as nanoantennas. The photoluminescence mappings of the Eu3+ transitions and the Si phonon mappings are strongly dependent of both the excitation beam and the Si-NR dimensions. The experimental results of Raman scattering and photoluminescence are confirmed by numerical simulations of the near-field intensity in the Si nanoantenna and in the Eu3+-doped film, respectively. The branching ratios obtained from the experimental PL maps also reveal a redistribution of the electric and magnetic emission channels. Our results show that it is possible to spatially control both electric and magnetic dipolar emission of Eu3+ ions by switching the laser beam polarization, hence the near-field at the excitation wavelength, and the electric and magnetic LDOS at the emission wavelength. This paves the way for optimized geometries taking advantage of both excitation and emission processes., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures

Optical Mie resonators based on silicon nanostructures allow tuning of light-matter-interaction with advanced design concepts based on CMOS compatible nanofabrication. Optically active materials such as transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD) monolayers can be placed in the near-field region of such Mie resonators. Here, we experimentally demonstrate and verify by numerical simulations coupling between a MoSe2 monolayer and the near-field of dielectric nanoresonators. Through a comparison of dark-field (DF) scattering spectroscopy and photoluminescence excitation experiments (PLE), we show that the MoSe2 absorption can be enhanced via the near-field of a nanoresonator. We demonstrate spectral tuning of the absorption via the geometry of individual Mie resonators. We show that we indeed access the optical near-field of the nanoresonators, by measuring a spectral shift between the typical near-field resonances in PLE compared to the far-field resonances in DF scattering. Our results prove that using MoSe2 as an active probe allows accessing the optical near-field above photonic nanostructures, without the requirement of highly complex near-field microscopy equipment., Comment: Main paper and supplement

We design planar silicon antennas for controlling the emission rate of magnetic or electric dipolar emitters. Evolutionary algorithms coupled to the Green Dyadic Method lead to different optimized geometries which depend on the nature and orientation of the dipoles. We discuss the physical origin of the obtained configurations thanks to modal analysis but also emphasize the role of nanoscale design of the LDOS. We complete our study using finite element method and demonstrate an enhancement up to 2000 of the magnetic Purcell factor in europium ions. Our work brings together random optimizations to explore geometric parameters without constraint, a first order deterministic approach to understand the optimized designs and a modal analysis which clarifies the physical origin of the exaltation of the magnetic Purcell effect., Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures, research article

Monolayers (MLs) of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) such as WSe2 and MoSe2 can be placed by dry stamping directly on broadband dielectric resonators, which have the ability to enhance the spontaneous emission rate and brightness of solid-state emitters at room temperature. We show strongly enhanced emission and directivity modifications in room temperature photoluminescence mapping experiments. By varying TMD material (WSe2 versus MoSe2) transferred on silicon nanoresonators with various designs (planarized versus non-planarized), we experimentally separate the different physical mechanisms that govern the global light emission enhancement. For WSe2 and MoSe2 we address the effects of Mie Resonances and strain in the monolayer. For WSe2 an important additional contribution comes from out-of-plane exciton dipoles. This paves the way for more targeted designs of TMD-Si nanoresonator structures for room temperature applications., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures

Scanning near-field optical imaging (SNOM) using local active probes provides in general images of the electric part of the photonic local density of states. However, certain atomic clusters can supply more information by simultaneously revealing both the magnetic (m-LDOS) and the electric (e-LDOS) local density of states in the optical range. For example, nanoparticles doped with rare-earth elements like europium or terbium provide both electric dipolar (ED) and magnetic dipolar (MD) transitions. In this theoretical article, we develop a quantum description of active systems (rare earth ions) coupled to a photonic nanostructure, by solving the optical Bloch equations together with Maxwell's equations. This allows us to access the population of the emitting energy levels for all atoms excited by the incident light, degenerated at the extremity of the tip of a near-field optical microscope. We show that it is possible to describe the collected light intensity due to ED and MD transitions in a scanning configuration. By carrying out simulations on different experimentally interesting systems, we demonstrate that our formalism can be of great value for the interpretation of experimental configurations including various external parameters (laser intensity, polarization and wavelength, the SNOM probe size, the nature of the sample ...)., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures

When the sizes of photonic nanoparticles are much smaller than the excitation wavelength, their optical response can be efficiently described with a series of polarizability tensors. Here, we propose a universal method to extract the different components of the response tensors associated with small plasmonic or dielectric particles. We demonstrate that the optical response can be faithfully approximated, as long as the effective dipole is not induced by retardation effects, hence do not depend on the phase of the illumination. We show that the conventional approximation breaks down for a phase-driven dipolar response, such as optical magnetic resonances in dielectric nanostructures. To describe such retardation induced dipole resonances in intermediate-size dielectric nanostructures, we introduce "pseudo-polarizabilities" including first-order phase effects, which we demonstrate at the example of magnetic dipole resonances in dielectric spheres and ellipsoids. Our method paves the way for fast simulations of large and inhomogeneous meta-surfaces., Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures

We demonstrate inverse design of plasmonic nanoantennas for directional light scattering. Our method is based on a combination of full-field electrodynamical simulations via the Green dyadic method and evolutionary optimization (EO). Without any initial bias, we find that the geometries reproducibly found by EO, work on the same principles as radio-frequency antennas. We demonstrate the versatility of our approach by designing various directional optical antennas for different scattering problems. EO based nanoantenna design has tremendous potential for a multitude of applications like nano-scale information routing and processing or single-molecule spectroscopy. Furthermore, EO can help to derive general design rules and to identify inherent physical limitations for photonic nanoparticles and metasurfaces., Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures

Surface plasmons have been used recently to generate heat nanosources, the intensity of which can be tuned, for example, with the wavelength of the excitation radiation. In this paper, we present versatile analytical and numerical investigations for the three-dimensional computation of the temperature rise in complex planar arrays of metallic particles. In the particular case of elongated particles sustaining transverse and longitudinal plasmon modes, we show a simple temperature rise control of the surrounding medium when turning the incident polarization. This formalism is then used for designing novel thermoplasmonic metasurfaces for the nanoscale remote control of heat flux and temperature gradients., Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures + supporting informations with 4 pages, 3 figures

We propose a simple experimental technique to separately map the emission from electric and magnetic dipole transitions close to single dielectric nanostructures, using a few nanometer thin film of rare-earth ion doped clusters. Rare-earth ions provide electric and magnetic dipole transitions of similar magnitude. By recording the photoluminescence from the deposited layer excited by a focused laser beam, we are able to simultaneously map the electric and magnetic emission enhancement on individual nanostructures. In spite of being a diffraction-limited far-field method with a spatial resolution of a few hundred nanometers, our approach appeals by its simplicity and high signal-to-noise ratio. We demonstrate our technique at the example of single silicon nanorods and dimers, in which we find a significant separation of electric and magnetic near-field contributions. Our method paves the way towards the efficient and rapid characterization of the electric and magnetic optical response of complex photonic nanostructures., Comment: 10 pages and 7 figures

High refractive index dielectric nanostructures provide original optical properties thanks to the occurrence of size- and shape-dependent optical resonance modes. These modes commonly present a spectral overlap of broad, low-order modes (\textit{e.g}. dipolar modes) and much narrower, higher-order modes. The latter are usually characterized by a rapidly varying frequency-dependent phase, which - in superposition with the lower order mode of approximately constant phase - leads to typical spectral features known as Fano resonances. Interestingly, such Fano resonances occur in dielectric nanostructures of the simplest shapes. In spheroidal nanoparticles, interference between broad magnetic dipole and narrower electric dipole modes can be observed. In high aspect-ratio structures like nanowires, either the electric or the magnetic dipolar mode (depending on the illumination conditions) interferes with higher order multipole contributions of the same nature (electric or magnetic). Using the analytical Mie theory, we analyze the occurrence of Fano resonances in high-index dielectric nanowires and discuss their consequences like unidirectional scattering. By means of numerical simulations, we furthermore study the impact on those Fano resonances of the shape of the nanowire cross-sections as well as the coupling of two parallel nanowires. The presented results show that all-dielectric nanostructures, even of simple shapes, provide a reliable low-loss alternative to plasmonic nanoantennas., Comment: 30 pages, 8 figures. To appear as a chapter in the book "Fano resonances in optics and microwaves: Physics and application", Springer (2018). Ed. by E. O. Kamenetskii, A. Sadreev, and A. Miroshnichenko

On-chip optoelectronic and all-optical information processing paradigms require compact implementation of signal transfer for which nanoscale surface plasmons circuitry offers relevant solutions. This work demonstrates the directional signal transmittance mediated by 2D plasmonic eigenmodes supported by crystalline cavities. Channel devices comprising two mesoscopic triangular input and output ports and sustaining delocalized, higher-order plasmon resonances in the visible to infra-red range are shown to enable the controllable transmittance between two confined entry and exit ports coupled over a distance exceeding 2 $\mu$m. The transmittance is attenuated by > 20dB upon rotating the incident linear polarization, thus offering a convenient switching mechanism. The optimal transmittance for a given operating wavelength depends on the geometrical design of the device that sets the spatial and spectral characteristic of the supporting delocalized mode. Our approach is highly versatile and opens the way to more complex information processing using pure plasmonic or hybrid nanophotonic architectures.

In this article, we propose a concise theoretical framework based on mixed field-susceptibilities to describe the decay of magnetic dipoles induced by non--magnetic nanostructures. This approach is first illustrated in simple cases in which analytical expressions of the decay rate can be obtained. We then show that a more refined numerical implementation of this formalism involving a volume discretization and the computation of a generalized propagator can predict the dynamics of magnetic dipoles in the vicinity of nanostructures of arbitrary geometries. We finally demonstrate the versatility of this numerical method by coupling it to an evolutionary optimization algorithm. In this way we predict a structure geometry which maximally promotes the decay of magnetic transitions with respect to electric emitters., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. Separate supporting informations of 12 pages and 13 figures

Aluminum nanostructures have recently been at the focus of numerous studies due to their properties including oxidation stability and surface plasmon resonances covering the ultraviolet and visible spectral windows. In this article, we reveal a new facet of this metal relevant for both plasmonics purpose and photo-thermal conversion. The field distribution of high order plasmonic resonances existing in two-dimensional Al structures is studied by nonlinear photoluminescence (nPL) microscopy in a spectral region where electronic interband transitions occur. The polarization sensitivity of the field intensity maps shows that the electric field concentration can be addressed and controlled on-demand. We use a numerical tool based on the Green dyadic method to analyze our results and to simulate the absorbed energy that is locally converted into heat. The polarization-dependent temperature increase of the Al structures is experimentally quantitatively measured, and is in an excellent agreement with theoretical predictions. Our work highlights Al as a promising candidate for designing thermal nanosources integrated in coplanar geometries for thermally assisted nanomanipulation or biophysical applications., Comment: 8 pages 6 figures main article; 7 pages 9 figures supporting informations

It has been experimentally demonstrated only recently that a simultaneous excitation of interfering electric and magnetic resonances can lead to uni-directional scattering of visible light in zero-dimensional dielectric nanoparticles. We show both theoretically and experimentally, that strongly anisotropic scattering also occurs in individual dielectric nanowires. The effect occurs even under either pure transverse electric or pure transverse magnetic polarized normal illumination. This allows for instance to toggle the scattering direction by a simple rotation of the incident polarization. Finally, we demonstrate that directional scattering is not limited to cylindrical cross-sections, but can be further tailored by varying the shape of the nanowires., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures + supporting informations of 12 pages, 19 figures

We review our recent developments of near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) that uses an active tip made of a single fluorescent nanodiamond (ND) grafted onto the apex of a substrate fiber tip. The ND hosting a limited number of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers, such a tip is a scanning quantum source of light. The method for preparing the ND-based tips and their basic properties are summarized. Then we discuss theoretically the concept of spatial resolution that is achievable in this special NSOM configuration and find it to be only limited by the scan height over the imaged system, in contrast with the standard aperture-tip NSOM whose resolution depends critically on both the scan height and aperture diameter. Finally, we describe a scheme we have introduced recently for high-resolution imaging of nanoplasmonic structures with ND-based tips that is capable of approaching the ultimate resolution anticipated by theory., Comment: AD, AC, OM, MB and SH wish to dedicate this brief review article to their co-author and colleague Yannick Sonnefraud who passed away in September 2014. Yannick initiated this research in 2008