arXiv subjects

Stefan A. Maier

Publications and source records attributed to Stefan A. Maier.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Coherent coupling between localised and propagating phonon polaritons

Following the recent observation of localised phonon polaritons in user-defined silicon carbide nano-resonators, here we demonstrate coherent coupling between those localised modes and propagating phonon polaritons bound to the surface of the nano-resonator's substrate. In order to obtain phase-matching, the nano-resonators have been fabricated to serve the double function of hosting the localised modes, while also acting as grating for the propagating ones. The coherent coupling between long lived, optically accessible localised modes, and low-loss propagative ones, opens the way to the design and realisation of phonon-polariton based quantum circuits.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Measuring chromatic aberrations in imaging systems using plasmonic nano-particles

Chromatic aberration in optical systems arises from the wavelength dependence of a glass's refractive index. Polychromatic rays incident upon an optical surface are refracted at slightly different angles and in traversing an optical system follow distinct paths creating images displaced according to color. Although arising from dispersion, it manifests as a spatial distortion correctable only with compound lenses with multiple glasses and accumulates in complicated imaging systems. While chromatic aberration is measured with interferometry, simple methods are attractive for their ease of use and low cost. In this letter we retrieve the longitudinal chromatic focal shift of high numerical aperture (NA) microscope objectives from the extinction spectra of metallic nanoparticles within the focal plane. The method is accurate for high NA objectives with apochromatic correction, and enables rapid assessment of the chromatic aberration of any complete microscopy systems, since it is straightforward to implement

physics.optics↗

arXiv2015

Spatial coherence and stability in a disordered organic polariton condensate

Although only a handful of organic materials have shown polariton condensation, their study is rapidly becoming more accessible. The spontaneous appearance of long-range spatial coherence is often recognized as a defining feature of such condensates. In this work, we study the emergence of spatial coherence in an organic microcavity and demonstrate a number of unique features stemming from the peculiarities of this material set. Despite its disordered nature, we find that correlations extend over the entire spot size and we measure $g^{(1)}(r,r')$ values of nearly unity at short distances and of 50% for points separated by nearly 10 $μ$m. We show that for large spots, strong shot to shot fluctuations emerge as varying phase gradients and defects, including the spontaneous formation of vortices. These are consistent with the presence of modulation instabilities. Furthermore, we find that measurements with flat-top spots are significantly influenced by disorder and can, in some cases, lead to the formation of mutually incoherent localized condensates.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

High-order localized spoof surface plasmon resonances and experimental verifications

We theoretically demonstrated and experimentally verified high-order radial spoof localized surface plasmon resonances supported by textured metal particles. Through an effective medium theory and exact numerical simulations, we show the emergence of these geometrically-originated electromagnetic modes at microwave frequencies. The occurrence of high-order radial spoof plasmon resonances is experimentally verified in ultrathin disks. Their spectral and near-field properties are characterized experimentally, showing an excellent agreement with theoretical predictions. Our findings shed light into the nature of spoof localized surface plasmons, and open the way to the design of broadband plasmonic devices able to operate at very different frequency regimes.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2015

Nanoantenna enhancement for telecom-wavelength superconducting single photon detectors

Superconducting nanowire single photon detectors are rapidly emerging as a key infrared photon-counting technology. Two front-side-coupled silver dipole nanoantennas, simulated to have resonances at 1480 nm and 1525 nm, were fabricated in a two-step process. An enhancement of 50% to 130% in the system detection efficiency was observed when illuminating the antennas. This offers a pathway to increasing absorption into superconducting nanowires, creating larger active areas, and achieving more efficient detection at longer wavelengths.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2014

Optical and Structural Properties of Ultra-thin Gold Films

Realizing laterally continuous ultra-thin gold films on transparent substrates is a challenge of significant technological importance. In the present work, formation of ultra-thin gold films on fused silica is studied, demonstrating how suppression of island formation and reduction of plasmonic absorption can be achieved by treating substrates with (3-mercaptopropyl) trimethoxysilane prior to deposition. Void-free fi lms with deposition thickness as low as 5.4 nm are realized and remain structurally stable at room temperature. Based on detailed structural analysis of the fi lms by specular and diffuse X-ray reflectivity measurements, it is shown that optical transmission properties of continuous ultra-thin films can be accounted for using the bulk dielectric function of gold. However, it is important to take into account the non-abrupt transition zone between the metal and the surrounding dielectrics, which extends through several lattice constants for the laterally continuous ultra-thin films (film thickness below 10 nm). This results in a significant reduction of optical transmission, as compared to the case of abrupt interfaces. These findings imply that the atomic-scale interface structure plays an important role when continuous ultra-thin films are considered, e.g., as semi-transparent electrical contacts, since optical transmission deviates significantly from the theoretical predictions for ideal films.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2014

Sub-diffractional, volume-confined polaritons in a natural hyperbolic material: hexagonal boron nitride

Strongly anisotropic media where the principal components of the dielectric tensor have opposite signs are called hyperbolic. Such materials length exhibit unique nanophotonic properties enabled by the highly directional propagation of slow-light modes localized at deeply sub-diffractional scales. While artificial hyperbolic metamaterials have been demonstrated, they suffer from high plasmonic losses and require complex nanofabrication, which in turn induces the size-dependent limitations on optical confinement. The low-loss, mid-infrared, natural hyperbolic material, hexagonal boron nitride is an attractive alternative. We observe four series of multiple (up to seven) 'hyperbolic polariton' modes in boron nitride nanocones in two spectral bands. The resonant modes obey the predicted aspect ratio dependence and exhibit record-high quality factors (Q up to 283) in the strong confinement regime (lambda/86 in the smallest structures). These observations assert hexagonal boron nitride as a promising platform for studying novel regimes of light-matter interactions and nanophotonic device engineering.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2014

Design guidelines for efficient plasmonic solar cells exploiting the trade-off between scattering and metallic absorption

We report on the role of plasmonic resonances in determining the delicate balance between scattering and absorption of light in nanometric particle arrays applied to the front surface of solar cells. Strong parasitic absorption is shown to be dependent upon the excitation of localized surface plasmon resonances and prohibits efficient scattering into the underlying semiconductor. Via detailed analytical and numerical investigations we obtain the dependence of scattering and absorption in nanoparticles upon their complex refractive index. These results provide an insight into the optimum material properties required to minimize parasitic optical absorption, while maintaining high scattering cross-section efficiency, thus providing a general design guideline for efficient light trapping with scattering nanoparticles. The work is extended to include comprehensive optoelectronic simulations of plasmonic solar cells in which the scattering metals are made from either Au, Ag or Al. We show that Al particles provide the closest approximation to the optimized particle refractive index and therefore exhibit the smallest parasitic absorption and correspondingly lead to the greatest solar cell efficiency enhancements. Indeed, for the Al particles we report a full-band enhancement of external quantum efficiency over the reference device.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2014

Functional renormalization group for commensurate antiferromagnets: Beyond the mean-field picture

We present a functional renormalization group (fRG) formalism for interacting fermions on lattices that captures the flow into states with commensurate spin-density wave order. During the flow, the growth of the order parameter is fed back into the flow of the interactions and all modes can be integrated out. This extends previous fRG flows in the symmetric phase that run into a divergence at a nonzero RG scale, i.e., that have to be stopped at the ordering scale. We use the corresponding Ward identity to check the accuracy of the results. We apply our new method to a model with two Fermi pockets that have perfect particle-hole nesting. The results obtained from the fRG are compared with those in random phase approximation.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Multiorbital effects in the functional renormalization group: A weak-coupling study of the Emery model

We perform an instability analysis of the Emery three-band model at hole doping and weak coupling within a channel-decomposed functional renormalization group flow proposed in Phys. Rev. B 79, 195125 (2009). In our approach, momentum dependences are taken into account with improved precision compared to previous studies of related models. Around a generic parameter set, we find a strong competition of antiferromagnetic and d-wave Cooper instabilities with a smooth behavior under a variation of doping and additional hopping parameters. For increasingly incommensurate ordering tendencies in the magnetic channel, the d-wave pairing gap is deformed at its maxima. Comparing our results for the Emery model to those obtained for the two-dimensional one-band Hubbard model with effective parameters, we find that, despite considerable qualitative agreement, multi-orbital effects have a significant impact on a quantitative level.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Experimental demonstration of light capsule embracing super-sized darkness inside via anti-resolution

We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate the focusing of macroscopic 3D darkness surrounded by all light in free space. The object staying in the darkness is similar to staying in an empty light capsule because light just bypasses it by resorting to destructive interference. Its functionality of controlling the direction of energy flux of light macroscopically is fascinating, similar in some sense to the transformation-based cloaking effect. Binary-optical system exhibiting anti-resolution (AR) is designed and fabricated, by which electromagnetic energy flux avoids and bends smoothly around a nearly perfect darkness region. AR remains an unexplored topic hitherto, in contrast to the super-resolution for realizing high spatial resolution. This novel scheme replies on smearing out the PSF and thus poses less stringent limitations upon the object's size and position since the created dark (zero-field) area reach 8 orders of magnitude larger than the square of wavelength in size. It functions very well at arbitrarily polarized beams in three dimensions, which is also frequency-scalable in the whole electromagnetic spectrum.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2013

Interplay between Point-Group Symmetries and the Choice of the Bloch Basis in Multiband Models

We analyze the point-group symmetries of generic multiband tight-binding models with respect to the transformation properties of the effective interactions. While the vertex functions in the orbital language may transform non-trivially under point-group operations, their point-group behavior in the band language can be simplified by choosing a suitable Bloch basis.We first give two analytically accessible examples. Then we show that, for a large class of models, a natural Bloch basis exists, in which the vertex functions in the band language transform trivially under all point-group operations. As a consequence, the point-group symmetries can be used to reduce the computational effort in perturbative many-particle approaches such as the functional renormalization group.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Harvesting Light with Transformation Optics

Transformation optics (TO) is a new tool for controlling electromagnetic fields. In the context of metamaterial technology, it provides a direct link between a desired electromagnetic (EM) phenomenon and the material response required for its occurrence. Recently, this powerful framework has been successfully exploited to study surface plasmon assisted phenomena such as light harvesting. Here, we review the general strategy based on TO to design plasmonic devices capable of harvesting light over a broadband spectrum and achieving considerable field confinement and enhancement. The methodology starts with two-dimensional (2D) cases, such as 2D metal edges, crescent-shaped cylinders, nanowire dimers, and rough metal surfaces, and has been well extended to fully-fledged three-dimensional (3D) situations. The largely analytic approach gives physical insights into the processes involved and suggests the way forward to study a wide variety of plasmonic nanostructures.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2013

Robust-to-loss entanglement generation using a quantum plasmonic nanoparticle array

We introduce a scheme for generating entanglement between two quantum dots using a plasmonic waveguide made from an array of metal nanoparticles. We show that the scheme is robust to loss, enabling it to work over long distance plasmonic nanoparticle arrays, as well as in the presence of other imperfections such as the detuning of the energy levels of the quantum dots. The scheme represents an alternative strategy to the previously introduced dissipative driven schemes for generating entanglement in plasmonic systems. Here, the entanglement is generated by using dipole-induced interference effects and detection-based postselection. Thus, contrary to the widely held view that loss is major problem for quantum plasmonic systems, we provide a robust-to-loss entanglement generation scheme that could be used as a versatile building block for quantum state engineering and control at the nanoscale.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Plasmonic Nano-Gap Tilings: Light-Concentrating Surfaces for Low-Loss Photonic Integration

Owing to their ability to concentrate light on nanometer scales, plasmonic surface structures are ideally suited for on-chip functionalization with nonlinear or gain materials. However, achieving a high effective quantum yield across a surface not only requires strong light localization but also control over losses. Here, we report on a particular class of tunable low-loss metasurfaces featuring dense arrangements of nanometer sized focal points on a photonic chip with an underlying waveguide channel. Guided within the plane, the photonic wave evanescently couples to the nano-gaps, concentrating light in a lattice of hot-spots. In studying the energy transfer between photonic and plasmonic channels of single trimer molecules and triangular nano-gap tilings in dependence on element size, we identify different regimes of operation. We show that the product of field enhancement, propagation length and element size is close-to-constant in both the radiative and subwavelength regimes, opening pathways for device designs that combine high field enhancements with large propagation lengths.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2012

Renormalization group flow for fermions into antiferromagnetically ordered phases: Method and mean-field models

We present a functional renormalization group flow for many-fermion lattice models into phases with broken spin-rotational symmetry. The flow is expressed purely in terms of fermionic vertex functions. The symmetry breaking is seeded by a small initial anomalous self-energy which grows at the transition scale and which prevents a runaway-flow at nonzero scales. Focusing on the case of commensurate antiferromagnetism we discuss how the interaction vertex can be parametrized efficiently. For reduced models with long-range bare interactions we show the results of standard mean-field theory are reproduced by the fRG and how anisotropies in the spin sector change the flows. We then describe a more efficient decomposition of the interaction vertex that should allow for the treatment of more general models.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Quantum Statistics of Surface Plasmon Polaritons in Metallic Stripe Waveguides

Single surface plasmon polaritons are excited using photons generated via spontaneous parametric down-conversion. The mean excitation rates, intensity correlations and Fock state populations are studied. The observed dependence of the second order coherence in our experiment is consistent with a linear uncorrelated Markovian environment in the quantum regime. Our results provide important information about the effect of loss for assessing the potential of plasmonic waveguides for future nanophotonic circuitry in the quantum regime.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2012

Effective three-particle interactions in low-energy models for multiband systems

We discuss different approximations for effective low-energy interactions in multi-band models for weakly correlated electrons. In the study of Fermi surface instabilities of the conduction band(s), the standard approximation consists only keeping those terms in the bare interactions that couple only to the conduction band(s), while corrections due to virtual excitations into bands away from the Fermi surface are typically neglected. Here, using a functional renormalization group approach, we present an improved truncation for the treatment of the effective interactions in the conduction band that keeps track of the generated three-particle interactions (six-point term) and hence allows one to include important aspects of these virtual interband excitations. Within a simplified two-patch treatment of the conduction band, we demonstrate that these corrections can have a rather strong effect in parts of the phase diagram by changing the critical scales for various orderings and the phase boundaries.

cond-mat.str-el↗