1 research outputs found
Evolutionary optimization of optical antennas
The design of nano-antennas is so far mainly inspired by radio-frequency
technology. However, material properties and experimental settings need to be
reconsidered at optical frequencies, which entails the need for alternative
optimal antenna designs. Here a checkerboard-type, initially random array of
gold cubes is subjected to evolutionary optimization. To illustrate the power
of the approach we demonstrate that by optimizing the near-field intensity
enhancement the evolutionary algorithm finds a new antenna geometry,
essentially a split-ring/two-wire antenna hybrid which surpasses by far the
performance of a conventional gap antenna by shifting the n=1 split-ring
resonance into the optical regime.Comment: Also see Supplementary material, as attached to the main pape