Extended Malus' Law with THz metallic metamaterials for sensitive detection with giant tunable quality factor

We study a polarizer-analyzer mounting for the terahertz regime with perfectly conducting metallic polarizers made of a periodic subwavelength pattern. We analytically investigate the influence on the transmission response of the multiple reflections which occur between polarizer and analyzer with a renewed Jones formalism. We demonstrate that this interaction leads to a modified transmission response: the extended Malus' Law. In addition, we show that the transmission response can be controlled by the distance between polarizer and analyzer. For particular set-ups, the mounting exhibits extremely sensitive transmission responses. This interesting feature can be employed for high precision sensing and characterization applications. We specifically propose a general design for measuring electro-optical response of materials in the terahertz domain allowing detection of refractive index variations as small as $10^{-5}$

Light transmission by subwavelength square coaxial aperture arrays in metallic films

Using Fourier Modal Method, we study the enhanced transmission exhibited by arrays of square coaxial apertures in a metallic film. The calculated transmission spectrum is in good agreement with FDTD calculations. We show that the enhanced transmission can be explained considering a few guided modes of a coaxial waveguide

Slanted annular aperture arrays as enhanced-transmission metamaterials: Excitation of the plasmonic transverse electromagnetic guided mode

International audienceWe present here the fabrication and the optical characterization of slanted annular aperture arrays engraved into silver film. An experimental enhanced transmission based on the excitation of the cutoff-less plasmonic guided mode of the nano-waveguides (the transmission electron microscopy mode) is demonstrated and agrees well with the theoretical predicted results. By the way, even if it is less efficient (70% → 20%), an enhanced transmission can occur at larger wavelength value (720 nm-930 nm) compared to conventional annular aperture arrays structure by correctly setting the metal thickness

Optical horn antennas for efficiently transferring photons from a quantum emitter to a single-mode optical fiber

International audienceWe theoretically demonstrate highly efficient optical coupling between a single quantum emitter and a monomode optical fiber over remarkably broad spectral ranges by extending the concept of horn antenna to optics. The optical horn antenna directs the radiation from the emitter toward the optical fiber and efficiently phase-matches the photon emission with the fiber mode. Numerical results show that an optical horn antenna can funnel up to 85% of the radiation from a dipolar source within an emission cone semi-angle as small as 7 degrees (antenna directivity of 300). It is also shown that 50% of the emitted power from the dipolar source can be collected and coupled to an SMF-28 fiber mode over spectral ranges larger than 1000 nm, with a maximum energy transfer reaching 70 %. This approach may open new perspectives in quantum optics and sensing

Enhanced transmission beyond the cut-off through sub-Lambda Annular Aperture Arrays

A cascaded structure of annular aperture arrays perforated in silver films is shown to act as a high quality Fabry-Pérot interferometer (quality factor up to 200). The transmission of a single nanostructured layer exhibits a cut-off wavelength beyond which there is no transmission. It is demonstrated, here, that the double structure permits to overcome this cut-off. It is also found that transmission is enhanced by a factor of 150 for certain wavelengths. This kind of cascaded nanostructured metallic layers offers many promising applications as well as for optical wavelengths than for THz-waves because this effect still exists for perfect metals. It opens up the path for the conception of a new generation of integrated components based on metallo-dielectric structures that can be easily tailored as tunable devices