F. Borghese | Searcharxiv

arXiv2010

Brownian Motion of Graphene

We study the Brownian motion (BM) of optically trapped graphene flakes. These orient orthogonal to the light polarization, due to the optical constants anisotropy. We explain the flake dynamics, measure force and torque constants and derive a full electromagnetic theory of optical trapping. The understanding of two dimensional BM paves the way to light-controlled manipulation and all-optical sorting of biological membranes and anisotropic macromolecules.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2010

Nanopolaritons: Vacuum Rabi splitting with a single quantum dot in the center of a dimer nanoantenna

The demonstration of enhanced spontaneous emission of nanoscaled optical emitters near metallic nanoparticles and the recent realization of a nanolaser based on surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation (spaser) encourage the search for strong coupling regime at the nanoscale. Here we propose the concept of nanopolaritons. We demonstrate with accurate scattering calculations that the strong coupling regime of a single quantum emitter (a semiconductor quantum dot) placed in the gap between two metallic nanoparticles can be achieved. The largest dimension of the investigated system is only 36 nm. Nanopolaritons will advance our fundamental understanding of surface plasmon enhanced optical interactions and could be used as ultra-compact elements in quantum-information technology.

quant-ph↗