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Resonant all‐dielectric nanophotonic structures have recently demonstrated enhancement of light emission and localization of near‐fields outside and inside the nanoresonators of various functionality. However, probing of the near‐field is still a time‐consuming and challenging procedure, requiring near‐field optical microscopy or cathodoluminescence approaches. On the contrary, inherent light emission such as Raman scattering from all‐dielectric nanostructures can provide important information on their resonant properties. Herein, probing of near‐field spatial distribution around a silicon trimer qualitatively using far‐field excitation of Raman scattering is demonstrated. The geometry of a single excitation and collection objective with lateral scanning is implemented. With this technique, switching near‐field distribution in the silicon trimer by changing the polarization of the incident light is observed. The full‐wave numerical simulations support the observed experimental results. It is believed that such an approach will be useful for near‐field probing of various all‐dielectric resonant nanostructures with a simple far‐field optical scheme.

All-optical ultrafast signal modulation and routing by low-loss nanodevices is a crucial step towards an ultracompact optical chip with high performance. Here, we propose a specifically designed silicon dimer nanoantenna, which is tunable via photoexcitation of dense electron-hole plasma with ultrafast relaxation rate. On the basis of this concept, we demonstrate the effect of beam steering by up to 20 degrees through simple variation of the intensity of incident light. The effect, which is suitable for ultrafast light routing in an optical chip, is demonstrated both in the visible and near-IR spectral regions for silicon- and germanium-based nanoantennas. We also reveal the effect of electron-hole plasma photoexcitation on the local density of states (LDOS) in the dimer gap and find that the orientation averaged LDOS can be altered by 50%, whereas modification of the projected LDOS can be even more dramatic, almost five-fold for transverse dipole orientation. Moreover, our analytical model sheds light on the transient dynamics of the studied nonlinear nanoantennas, yielding all temporal characteristics of the suggested ultrafast nanodevice. The proposed concept paves the way to the creation of low-loss, ultrafast, and compact devices for optical signal modulation and routing.

Dewetting of thin metal films is one of the most widespread method for functional plasmonic nanostructures fabrication. However, simple thermal-induced dewetting does not allow to control degree of nanostructures order without additional lithographic process steps. Here we propose a novel method for lithography-free and large-scale fabrication of plasmonic nanostructures via controllable femtosecond laser-induced dewetting. The method is based on femtosecond laser surface pattering of a thin film followed by a nanoscale hydrodynamical instability, which is found to be very controllable under specific irradiation conditions. We achieve control over degree of nanostructures order by changing laser irradiation parametrs and film thickness. This allowed us to exploit the method for the broad range of applications: resonant light absorbtion and scattering, sensing, and potential improving of thin-film solar cells.

Nanophotonics based on resonant nanostructures and metasurfaces made of halide perovskites have become a prospective direction for efficient light manipulation at the subwavelength scale in advanced photonic designs. One of the main challenges in this field is the lack of large-scale low-cost technique for subwavelength perovskite structures fabrication preserving highly efficient luminescence. Here, unique properties of halide perovskites addressed to their extremely low thermal conductivity (lower than that of silica glass) and high defect tolerance to apply projection femtosecond laser lithography for nanofabrication with precise spatial control in all three dimensions preserving the material luminescence efficiency are employed. Namely, with CH3 NH3 PbI3 perovskite highly ordered nanoholes and nanostripes of width as small as 250 nm, metasurfaces with periods less than 400 nm, and nanowire lasers as thin as 500 nm, corresponding to the state-of-the-art in multistage expensive lithographical methods are created. Remarkable performance of the developed approach allows to demonstrate a number of advanced optical applications, including morphology-controlled photoluminescence yield, structural coloring, optical- information encryption, and lasing.

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (project 16.8939.2017/8.9 for the section on devices) and Russian Science Foundation (project 17-73-20336 for the section on nanostructures). Y.K. acknowledges a support from the Strategic Fund of the Australian National University. A.Z. also acknowledges a partial support from the Welch Foundation (grant AT 16-17).

Plasmonic nanoparticles coupled with metallic films forming nanometer scale cavities have recently emerged as a powerful tool for enhancement of light-matter interaction. Despite high efficiency for sensing and light emission, such nanocavities exhibit harmful and uncontrolled optical heating which limits the ranges of light intensities and working temperature. In contrast to plasmonic nanoparticles, all-dielectric counterparts possess low Ohmic losses, high temperature stability along with a strong temperature-dependent Raman response. Here, we demonstrate that a silicon nanoparticle coupled with a thin gold film can serve as a multifunctional metal-dielectric (hybrid) nanocavity operating up to 1200 K. Resonant interaction of light with such nanocavity enables molecular sensing, heat-induced molecular events (protein unfolding), and their real-time tracing with a nanoscale thermometry through the monitoring enhanced Raman scattering both from the nanoparticle and analyzed molecules. We model numerically the thermo-optical properties of the hybrid nanocavity and reveal two alternative regimes of operation - with and without strong optical heating while other functionalities are preserved. We believe that the concept of the multifunctional hybrid nanocavities holds great potential for diverse photochemical and photophysical applications.

Surface electromagnetic waves are characterized by the intrinsic spin-orbit interaction which results in the fascinating spin-momentum locking. Therefore, directional coupling of light to surface waves can be achieved through chiral nanoantennas. Here, we show that dielectric nanoantenna provides chiral response with strong spectral dependence due to the interference of electric and magnetic dipole momenta when placed in the vicinity of the metal-air interface. Remarkably, chiral behaviour in the proposed scheme does not require elliptical polarization of the pump beam or the geometric chirality of the nanoantenna. We show that the proposed ultracompact and simple dielectric nanoantenna allows for both directional launching of surface plasmon polaritons on a thin gold film and their demultiplexing with a high spectral resolution.

Interaction of light pulses of various durations and intensities with nanoscale photonic structures plays an important role in many applications of nanophotonics for high-density data storage, ultra-fast data processing, surface coloring and sensing. A design of optically tunable and reconfigurable structures made from different materials is based on many important physical effects and advances in material science, and it employs the resonant character of light interaction with nanostructures and strong field confinement at the nanoscale. Here we review the recent progress in physics of tunable and reconfigurable nanophotonic structures of different types. We start from low laser intensities that produce weak reversible changes in nanostructures, and then move to the discussion of non-reversible changes in photonic structures. We focus on three platforms based on metallic, dielectric and hybrid resonant photonic structures such as nanoantennas, nanoparticle oligomers and nanostructured metasurfaces. Main challenges and key advantages of each of the approaches focusing on applications in advanced photonic technologies are also discussed.