Thermalization and Cooling of Plasmon-Exciton Polaritons: Towards Quantum Condensation

We present indications of thermalization and cooling of quasi-particles, a precursor for quantum condensation, in a plasmonic nanoparticle array. We investigate a periodic array of metallic nanorods covered by a polymer layer doped with an organic dye at room temperature. Surface lattice resonances of the array---hybridized plasmonic/photonic modes---couple strongly to excitons in the dye, and bosonic quasi-particles which we call plasmon-exciton-polaritons (PEPs) are formed. By increasing the PEP density through optical pumping, we observe thermalization and cooling of the strongly coupled PEP band in the light emission dispersion diagram. For increased pumping, we observe saturation of the strong coupling and emission in a new weakly coupled band, which again shows signatures of thermalization and cooling.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures including supplemental material. The newest version includes new measurements and corrections to the interpretation of the result

Footprints of fixed-gear fisheries in relation to rising whale entanglements on the U.S. West Coast

On the U.S. West Coast, reports of whales entangled in fishing gear increased dramatically in 2014. In this study, a time series of fishing activity maps was developed from 2009 to 2016 for the four fixed-gear fisheries most commonly implicated in entanglements. Maps were generated using vessel monitoring system (VMS) data linked to port-level landings databases, which were related to entangled whale reports over the same time period and with modelled distributions of humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae Borowski. Over the full study period, neither marked increases in fishing activity nor changes in fisheries footprints within regions with high whale densities were detected. By contrast, a delayed fishery opening in California due to a harmful algal bloom in spring of 2016 led to ~5–7 times average levels of Dungeness crab Metacarcinus magister (Dana) fishing activity, which was consistent with a high rate of entanglement in that year. These results are consistent with current hypotheses that habitat compression caused by a marine heatwave increased the overlap of whales with fishing activity, despite minimal changes in the fisheries themselves. This study adds to literature on bycatch of protected species in otherwise sustainable fisheries, highlighting the value of using VMS data for reducing human–wildlife conflict in the ocean

Photon statistics in collective strong coupling: Nanocavities and microcavities

There exists a growing interest in the properties of the light generated by hybrid systems involving a mesoscopic number of emitters as a means of providing macroscopic quantum light sources. In this work, the quantum correlations of the light emitted by a collection of emitters coupled to a generic optical cavity are studied theoretically using an effective Hamiltonian approach. Starting from the single-emitter level, we analyze the persistence of photon antibunching as the ensemble size increases. Not only is the photon blockade effect identifiable, but photon antibunching originated from destructive interference processes, the so-called unconventional antibunching, is also present. We study the dependence of these two types of negative correlations on the spectral detuning between cavity and emitters, as well as its evolution as the time delay between photon detections increases. Throughout this work, the performance of plasmonic nanocavities and dielectric microcavities is compared: despite the distinct energy scales and the differences introduced by their respectively open and closed character, the bunching and antibunching phenomenology presents remarkable similarities in both types of cavitiesThis work has been funded by the European Research Council under Grant Agreements No. ERC-2011-AdG 290981 and No. ERC-2016-STG-714870, the EU Seventh Framework Programme (Grants No. FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG-630996 and No. FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG-618229), and the Spanish MINECO under Contracts No. MAT2014-53432-C5-5-R and No. FIS2015-64951-R, as well as through the “María de Maeztu” programme for Units of Excellence in R&D (Grant No. MDM-2014-0377)

Organic polaritons enable local vibrations to drive long-range energy transfer

Long-range energy transfer in organic molecules has been experimentally obtained by strongly coupling their electronic excitations to a confined electromagnetic cavity mode. Here, we shed light into the polariton-mediated mechanism behind this process for different configurations: donor and acceptor molecules either intermixed or physically separated. We numerically address the phenomenon by means of Bloch-Redfield theory, which allows us to reproduce the effect of complex vibrational reservoirs characteristic of organic molecules. Our findings reveal the key role played by the middle polariton as the nonlocal intermediary in the transmission of excitations from donor to acceptor molecules. We also provide analytical insights on the key physical magnitudes that help to optimize the efficiency of the long-range energy transferThis work has been funded by the European Research Council under Grant Agreements No. ERC-2011-AdG 290981 and No. ERC- 2016-STG-714870, the EU Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG-630996 and FP7-PEOPLE-2013- CIG-618229), and the Spanish MINECO under Contracts No. MAT2014-53432-C5-5-R and No. FIS2015-64951-R, as well as through the “María de Maeztu” programme for Units of Excellence in R&D (MDM-2014-0377)

Enhancing photon correlations through plasmonic strong coupling

© 2017 Optical Society of America. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic reproduction and distribution, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modifications of the content of this paper are prohibitedThere is an increasing scientific and technological interest in the design and implementation of nanoscale sources of quantum light. Here, we investigate the quantum statistics of the light scattered from a plasmonic nanocavity coupled to a mesoscopic ensemble of emitters under low coherent pumping. We present an analytical description of the intensity correlations taking place in these systems and unveil the fingerprint of plasmon-exciton-polaritons in them. Our findings reveal that plasmonic cavities are able to retain and enhance excitonic nonlinearities, even when the number of emitters is large. This makes plasmonic strong coupling a promising route for generating nonclassical light beyond the single-emitter levelFP7 Ideas: European Research Council (IDEASERC) (ERC-2011-AdG 290981, ERC-2016-STG-714870, FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG-618229, FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG630996); Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) (FIS2015-64951-R, MAT2014-53432-C5-5-R, MDM-2014-0377

Super-Planckian far-field radiative heat transfer

We present here a theoretical analysis that demonstrates that the far-field radiative heat transfer between objects with dimensions smaller than the thermal wavelength can overcome the Planckian limit by orders of magnitude. To guide the search for super-Planckian far-field radiative heat transfer, we make use of the theory of fluctuational electrodynamics and derive a relation between the far-field radiative heat transfer and the directional absorption efficiency of the objects involved. Guided by this relation, and making use of state-of-the-art numerical simulations, we show that the far-field radiative heat transfer between highly anisotropic objects can largely overcome the black-body limit when some of their dimensions are smaller than the thermal wavelength. In particular, we illustrate this phenomenon in the case of suspended pads made of polar dielectrics like SiN or SiO2. These structures are widely used to measure the thermal transport through nanowires and low-dimensional systems and can be employed to test our predictions. Our work illustrates the dramatic failure of the classical theory to predict the far-field radiative heat transfer between micro- and nanodevicesWe acknowledge funding from the Spanish MINECO (FIS2015-64951-R, MAT2014-53432- C5-5-R, FIS2014-53488-P, FIS2017-84057-P), the Comunidad de Madrid (S2013/MIT-2740), the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG- 630996, FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG-618229), and the European Research Council (ERC-2011-AdG-290981 and ERC-2016- STG-714870). V.F.-H. acknowledges support from “la Caixa” Foundation and J.C.C. thanks the DFG and SFB767 for sponsoring his stay at the University of Konstanz as Mercator Fello

Active Control of Polariton-Enabled Long-Range Energy Transfer

Optical control is achieved on the excited state energy transfer between spatially separated donor and acceptor molecules, both coupled to the same optical mode of a cavity. The energy transfer occurs through the formed hybrid polaritons and can be switched on and off by means of ultraviolet and visible light. The control mechanism relies on a photochromic component used as donor, whose absorption and emission properties can be varied reversibly through light irradiation, whereas in-cavity hybridization with acceptors through polariton states enables a 6-fold enhancement of acceptor/donor contribution to the emission intensity with respect to a reference multilayer. These results pave the way for synthesizing effective gating systems for the transport of energy by light, relevant for light-harvesting and light-emitting devices, and for photovoltaic cells.Comment: 52 pages, 40 Figures, 202

First data set of H₂O/HDO columns from the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI)

This paper presents a new data set of vertical column densities of the water vapour isotopologues H2O and HDO retrieved from short-wave infrared (2.3 μm) reflectance measurements by the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) aboard the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite. TROPOMI features daily global coverage with a spatial resolution of up to 7 km × 7 km. The retrieval utilises a profile-scaling approach. The forward model neglects scattering, thus strict cloud filtering is necessary. For validation, recent ground-based water vapour isotopologue measurements by the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) are employed. A comparison of TCCON δD with measurements by the project Multi-platform remote Sensing of Isotopologues for investigating the Cycle of Atmospheric water (MUSICA) for data prior to 2014 (where MUSICA data is available) shows a bias in TCCON δD estimates. As TCCON HDO is currently not validated, an overall correction of recent TCCON HDO data is derived based on this finding. The agreement between the corrected TCCON measurements and collocated TROPOMI observations is good with an average bias of (0.02 ± 2) · 1021 molec cm−2 in H2O and (−0.3 ± 7) · 1017 molec cm−2 in HDO, which corresponds to a bias of (−12 ± 17) ‰ in a posteriori δD. The use of the data set is demonstrated with a case study of a blocking anticyclone in northwestern Europe in July 2018 using single overpass data