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arXiv · 1611.05399

Mode-matching for Optical Antennas

Thorsten Feichtner·Silke Christiansen·Bert Hecht
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Abstract

The emission rate of a point dipole can be strongly increased in presence of a well-designed optical antenna. Yet, optical antenna design is largely based on radio-frequency rules, ignoring e.g.~ohmic losses and non-negligible field penetration in metals at optical frequencies. Here we combine reciprocity and Poynting's theorem to derive a set of optical-frequency antenna design rules for benchmarking and optimizing the performance of optical antennas driven by single quantum emitters. Based on these findings a novel plasmonic cavity antenna design is presented exhibiting a considerably improved performance compared to a reference two-wire antenna. Our work will be useful for the design of high-performance optical antennas and nanoresonators for diverse applications ranging from quantum optics to antenna-enhanced single-emitter spectroscopy and sensing.

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Thorsten Feichtner, Silke Christiansen, Bert Hecht. 2016-11-16. Mode-matching for Optical Antennas. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.119.217401

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