arXiv subjects

Francisco J. Rodríguez-Fortuño

Publications and source records attributed to Francisco J. Rodríguez-Fortuño.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

Optical chiral sorting forces and their manifestation in evanescent waves and nanofibres

Optical fields can exert forces of chiral nature on molecules and nanoparticles, which would prove extremely valuable in the separation of enantiomers with pharmaceutical applications, yet it is inherently complex, and the varied frameworks used in the literature further complicate the theoretical understanding. This paper unifies existing approaches used to describe dipolar optical forces and introduces a new symmetry-based `force basis' consisting of twelve vector fields, each weighted by particle-specific coefficients, for a streamlined description of force patterns. The approach is rigorously applied to evanescent waves and dielectric nanofibres, yielding concise analytical expressions for optical forces. Through this, we identify optimal strategies for enantiomer separation, offering invaluable guidance for future experiments.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2023

Complex refraction metasurfaces for locally enhanced propagation through opaque media

Metasurfaces with linear phase gradients can redirect light beams. We propose controlling both phase and amplitude of a metasurface to extend Snell's law to the realm of complex angles, enabling a non-decaying transmission through opaque media with complex refractive indices. This leads to the discovery of non-diffracting and non-decaying solutions to the wave equation in opaque media, in the form of generalised cosine and Bessel-beams with a complex argument. While these solutions present nonphysical exponentially growing side tails, we address this via a windowing process, removing the side tails of the field profile while preserving significant transmission enhancement through an opaque slab on a small localized region. Such refined beam profiles may be synthesized by passive metasurfaces with phase and amplitude control at the opaque material's interface. Our findings, derived from rigorous solutions of the wave equation, promise new insights and enhanced control of light propagation in opaque media.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2023

Structured transverse orbital angular momentum probed by a levitated optomechanical sensor

The momentum carried by structured light fields exhibits a rich array of surprising features. In this work, we generate transverse orbital angular momentum (TOAM) in the interference field of two parallel and counterpropagating linearly-polarised focused beams, synthesising an array of identical handedness vortices carrying intrinsic TOAM. We explore this structured light field using an optomechanical sensor, consisting of an optically levitated silicon nanorod, whose rotation is a probe of the optical angular momentum, which generates an exceptionally large torque. This simple creation and direct observation of TOAM will have applications in studies of fundamental physics, the optical manipulation of matter and quantum optomechanics.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2023

Efficient post-processing of electromagnetic plane wave simulations to model arbitrary structured beams incident on axisymmetric structures

The study of an optical beam interacting with material structures is a fundamental of nanophotonics. Computational electromagnetic solvers facilitate the rapid calculation of the scattering from material structures with arbitrary geometry and complexity, but have limited efficiency when employing structured excitation fields. We have developed a post-processing method and package that can efficiently calculate the full three-dimensional electric and magnetic fields for any optical beam incident on a particle or structure with at least one axis of continuous rotational symmetry, called an axisymmetric body (such as a sphere, cylinder, cone, torus or surface). Provided an initial batch of plane wave simulations is computed, this open-source package combines data from computational electromagnetic solvers in a post-processing fashion using the angular spectrum representation to create arbitrarily structured beams, including vector vortex beams. Any and all possible incident beams can be generated from the initial batch of plane wave simulations, without the need for further simulations. This allows for efficiently performing parameter sweeps such as changing the angle of illumination or translating the particle position relative to the beam, all in post-processing, with no need for additional time-consuming simulations. We demonstrate some applications by numerically calculating optical force and torque maps for a spherical plasmonic nanoparticle in a tightly focused Gaussian beam, a plasmonic nanocone in an azimuthally polarised beam and compute the fields of a non-paraxial Laguerre-Gaussian vortex beam reflecting on a multilayered surface. We believe this package, called BEAMS, is a valuable tool for rapidly quantifying electromagnetic systems that are beyond traditional analytical methods.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2023

3D Zeros in Electromagnetic Fields

We present a study of 3D electromagnetic field zeros, uncovering their remarkable characteristic features and propose a classifying framework. These are a special case of general dark spots in optical fields, which sculpt light's spatial structure into matter-moving, information-rich vortices, escape the diffraction limit for single-molecule imaging, and can trap particles for nanoscale manipulation. Conventional dark spots are two-dimensional in two aspects: localised in a plane and having a non-zero out-of-plane field component. We focus on non-paraxial fields, where three-dimensional dark spots can exist non-stably at fully localised points, making distinct imprints in the flux of energy and momentum, and in the light's polarisation texture. With this work, we hope to enhance current dark spot applications, or inspire new ones impossible with lower-dimensional zeros.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2022

Non-Diffractive 3D Polarisation Features of Optical Vortex Beams

Vector optical vortices exhibit complex polarisation patterns due to the interplay between spin and orbital angular momenta. Here we demonstrate, both analytically and with simulations, that certain polarisation features of optical vortex beams maintain constant transverse spatial dimensions independently of beam divergence due to diffraction. These polarisation features appear in the vicinity of the phase singularity and are associated with the presence of longitudinal electric fields. The predicted effect may prove important in metrology and high resolution imaging applications.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2021

Polarisation Control of Nanoantenna Cold Spots

Cold spots are sub-wavelength regions which might emerge near a plasmonic nanoantenna, should one or more components of some far-field illumination cancel out with scattered light. With a simplest-case demonstration using two dipolar scatterers, we show that by changing only the polarisation and amplitude of two plane waves, a unique, zero-magnitude and super sub-wavelength cold spot can be created anywhere in the space around a nanoantenna. This technique is a means for ultra-fast, remote, and non-mechanical sub-wavelength electric field manipulation.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2021

The dependence of evanescent wave polarization on the losses of guided optical modes

Spin-momentum locking of evanescent waves describes the relationship between the propagation constant of an evanescent mode and the polarization of its electromagnetic field, giving rise to applications in light nano-routing and polarimetry among many others. The use of complex numbers in physics is a powerful representation in areas such as quantum mechanics or electromagnetism; it is well known that a lossy waveguide can be modelled with the addition of an imaginary part to the propagation constant. Here we explore how these losses are entangled with the polarization of the associated evanescent tails for the waveguide, revealing a well-defined mapping between waveguide losses and the Poincaré sphere of polarizations, in what could be understood as a "polarization-loss locking" of evanescent waves. We analyse the implications for near-field directional coupling of sources to waveguides, as optimized dipoles must take into account the losses for a perfectly unidirectional excitation. We also reveal the potential advantage of calculating the angular spectrum of a source defined in a complex, rather than the traditionally purely real, transverse wavevector space formalism.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2020

Evanescent Gravitational Waves

We describe the properties of evanescent gravitational waves (EGWs)---wave solutions of Einstein equations which decay exponentially in some direction while propagating in another. Evanescent waves are well-known in acoustics and optics and have recently received much attention due to their extraordinary properties such as their transverse spin and spin-momentum locking. We show that EGWs possess similarly remarkable properties, carrying transverse spin angular momenta and driving freely falling test masses along in elliptical trajectories. Hence, test masses on a plane transverse to the direction of propagation exhibit correlated vector and scalar-like deformation---correlations which can be used to distinguish it from modified gravity. We demonstrate that EGWs are present and dominant in the vicinity of sub-wavelength sources such as orbiting binaries.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2020

Enhancement of recoil optical forces via high-k plasmons on thin metallic films

The recoil optical force that acts on emitters near a surface or waveguide relies on near-field directionality and conservation of momentum. It features desirable properties uncommon in optical forces, such as the ability to produce it via wide-area illumination of vast numbers of particles without the need for focusing, or being dynamically switchable via the polarization of light. Unfortunately, these recoil forces are usually very weak and have not been experimentally observed in small dipolar particles. Some works theoretically demonstrate orders-of-magnitude enhancement of these forces via complex nano-structuring involving hyperbolic surfaces or metamaterials, complicating the fabrication and experimental demonstration. In this work, we theoretically and numerically show enhancement of the lateral recoil force by simply using thin metallic films, which support ultra-high-momentum plasmonic modes. The high-momentum carried by these modes impart a correspondingly large recoil force on the dipole, enhancing the force by several orders of magnitude in a remarkably simple geometry, bringing it closer to practical applications.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2020

Far-field and near-field directionality in acoustic scattering

Far-field directional scattering and near-field directional coupling from simple sources have recently received great attention in photonics: beyond circularly-polarized dipoles, whose directional coupling to evanescent waves was recently applied to acoustics, the near-field directionality of modes in optics includes phased combinations of electric and magnetic dipoles, such as the Janus dipole and the Huygens dipole, both of which have been experimentally implemented using high refractive index nanoparticles. In this work we extend this to acoustics: we propose the use of high acoustic index scatterers exhibiting phased combinations of acoustic monopoles and dipoles with far-field and near-field directionality. All solutions stem from the elegant acoustic angular spectrum of the acoustic source, in close analogy to electromagnetism. A Huygens acoustic source with zero backward scattering is proposed and numerically demonstrated, as well as a Janus source achieving face-selective and position-dependent evanescent coupling to nearby acoustic waveguides.

physics.class-ph↗

arXiv2020

Exploiting metamaterials, plasmonics and nanoantennas concepts in silicon photonics

The interaction of light with subwavelength metallic nano-structures is at the heart of different current scientific hot topics, namely plasmonics, metamaterials and nanoantennas. Research in these disciplines during the last decade has given rise to new, powerful concepts providing an unprecedented degree of control over light manipulation at the nanoscale. However, only recently have these concepts been used to increase the capabilities of light processing in current photonic integrated circuits (PICs), which traditionally rely only on dielectric materials with element sizes larger than the light wavelength. Amongst the different PIC platforms, silicon photonics is expected to become mainstream, since manufacturing using well-established CMOS processes enables the mass production of low-cost PICs. In this review we discuss the benefits of introducing recent concepts arisen from the fields of metamaterials, plasmonics and nanoantennas into a silicon photonics integrated platform. We review existing works in this direction and discuss how this hybrid approach can lead to the improvement of current PICs enabling novel and disruptive applications in photonics.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2019

Momentum-space geometric structure of helical evanescent waves and its implications on near-field directionality

In this work, a momentum-space geometrical structure in helical evanescent electromagnetic waves is revealed. It is shown that for every helical evanescent wave on a helicity-dependent half tangent line in momentum space, the orientation of each of its field, spin, and Poynting vectors is the same. This geometric structure reveals itself as a remarkable relation between the far-field and near-field components of the angular spectrum. Any general evanescent wavevector is linked to two points on the $k_ρ=k_0$ circle of propagating wavevectors via two helicity-dependent tangent lines. Knowing the field on the $k_ρ=k_0$ circle of a general dipolar source is sufficient to determine its entire evanescent angular spectrum. Applying this concept, we gain insights into near-field directionality by showing that every zero in the angular spectrum is a helicity singularity where two half-tangent lines of opposite helicity intersect. A powerful method for synthetic design of near-field directional sources is also devised, using structured helical illumination to gain full control of the near-field directionality. The results provide a fundamental insight of helical evanescent waves and have implications in areas where chiral light-matter interaction plays a central role.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2019

Optical magnetic dipole levitation using a plasmonic surface

Optically-induced magnetic resonances in non-magnetic media have unlocked magnetic light-matter interactions and led to new technologies in many research fields. Previous proposals for the levitation of nanoscale particles without structured illumination have worked on the basis of epsilon-near-zero surfaces or anisotropic materials but these carry with them significant fabrication difficulties. We report the optical levitation of a magnetic dipole over a wide range of realistic materials, including bulk metals, thereby relieving these difficulties. The repulsion is independent of surface losses and we propose an experiment to detect this force which consists of a core-shell nanoparticle, exhibiting a magnetic resonance, in close proximity to a gold substrate under plane wave illumination. We anticipate the use of this phenomenon in new nanomechanical devices.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2019

Amplitude and phase control of guided modes excitation from a single dipole source:engineering far- and near-field directionality

The design of far-field radiation diagrams from combined electric and magnetic dipolar sources has recently found applications in nanophotonic metasurfaces that realize tailored reflection and refraction. Such dipolar sources also exhibit important near-field evanescent coupling properties with applications in polarimetry and quantum optics. Here we introduce a rigorous theoretical framework for engineering the angular spectra encompassing both far- and near-fields of electric and magnetic sources and develop a unified description of both free space and guided mode directional radiation. The approach uses the full parametric space of six complex-valued components of magnetic and electric dipoles in order to engineer constructive or destructive near-field interference. Such dipolar sources can be realized with dielectric or plasmonic nanoparticles. We show how a single dipolar source can be designed to achieve the selective coupling to multiple waveguide modes and far-field simultaneously with a desired amplitude, phase, and direction.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2019

Optical forces from near-field directionalities in planar structures

Matter manipulation with optical forces has become commonplace in a wide range of research fields and is epitomized by the optical trap. Calculations of optical forces on small illuminated particles typically neglect multiple scattering on nearby structures. However, this scattering can result in large recoil forces, particularly when the scattering includes directional near-field excitations. Near-field recoil forces have been studied in the case of electric, magnetic and circularly polarized dipoles, but they exist for any type of directional near-field excitation. We use the force angular spectrum as a concise and intuitive analytical expression for the force on any dipole near planar surfaces, which allows us to clearly distinguish the effect due to the dipole, and due to the surface. We relate this directly to the coupling efficiency of surface or guided modes via Fermi's golden rule. To exemplify this, a near-field force transverse to the illumination is computationally calculated for a Huygens dipole near a metallic waveguide. We believe this formalism will prove insightful for various nanomanipulation systems within areas such as nanofluidics, sensing, biotechnology and nano-assembly of nanostructures.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2019

Near-Field Directionality Beyond the Dipole Approximation: Electric Quadrupole and Higher-Order Multipole Angular Spectra

Within the context of spin-related optical phenomena, the near-field directionality is generally understood from the quantum spin Hall effect of light, according to which the transverse spin of surface or guided modes is locked to the propagation direction. So far, most previous works have been focused on the spin properties of circularly polarized dipolar sources. However, in near-field optics, higher-order multipole sources (e.g., quadrupole, octupole, and so on) might become relevant, so a more in-depth formulation would be highly valuable. Building on the angular spectrum representation, we provide a general, analytical, and ready-to-use treatment in order to address the near-field directionality of any multipole field, particularizing to the electric quadrupole case. Besides underpinning and upgrading the current framework on spin-dependent directionality, our results may open up new perspectives for engineering light-matter coupling at the nanoscale.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2019

Experimental demonstration of linear and spinning Janus dipoles for polarisation and wavelength selective near-field coupling

The electromagnetic field scattered by nano-objects contains a broad range of wave vectors and can be efficiently coupled to waveguided modes. The dominant contribution to scattering from subwavelength dielectric and plasmonic nanoparticles is determined by electric and magnetic dipolar responses. Here, we experimentally demonstrate spectral and phase selective excitation of Janus dipoles, sources with electric and magnetic dipoles oscillating out of phase, in order to control near-field interference and directional coupling to waveguides. We show that by controlling the polarisation state of the dipolar excitations and the excitation wavelength to adjust their relative contributions, directionality and coupling strength can be fully tuned. Furthermore, we introduce a novel spinning Janus dipole featuring cylindrical symmetry in the near and far field, which results in either omnidirectional coupling or noncoupling. Controlling the propagation of guided light waves via fast and robust near-field interference between polarisation components of a source is required in many applications in nanophotonics and quantum optics.

physics.optics↗