2 research outputs found
Optics and Nonlinear Buckling Mechanics in Large-Area, Highly Stretchable Arrays of Plasmonic Nanostructures
Large-scale, dense arrays of plasmonic nanodisks on low-modulus, high-elongation elastomeric substrates represent a class of tunable optical systems, with reversible ability to shift key optical resonances over a range of nearly 600 nm at near-infrared wavelengths. At the most extreme levels of mechanical deformation (strains >100%), nonlinear buckling processes transform initially planar arrays into three-dimensional configurations, in which the nanodisks rotate out of the plane to form linear arrays with “wavy” geometries. Analytical, finite-element, and finite-difference time-domain models capture not only the physics of these buckling processes, including all of the observed modes, but also the quantitative effects of these deformations on the plasmonic responses. The results have relevance to mechanically tunable optical systems, particularly to soft optical sensors that integrate on or in the human body
Ultrabright Room-Temperature Sub-Nanosecond Emission from Single Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers Coupled to Nanopatch Antennas
Solid-state
quantum emitters are in high demand for emerging technologies
such as advanced sensing and quantum information processing. Generally,
these emitters are not sufficiently bright for practical applications,
and a promising solution consists in coupling them to plasmonic nanostructures.
Plasmonic nanostructures support broadband modes, making it possible
to speed up the fluorescence emission in room-temperature emitters
by several orders of magnitude. However, one has not yet achieved
such a fluorescence lifetime shortening without a substantial loss
in emission efficiency, largely because of strong absorption in metals
and emitter bleaching. Here, we demonstrate ultrabright single-photon
emission from photostable nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in nanodiamonds
coupled to plasmonic nanocavities made of low-loss single-crystalline
silver. We observe a 70-fold difference between the average fluorescence
lifetimes and a 90-fold increase in the average detected saturated
intensity. The nanocavity-coupled NVs produce up to 35 million photon
counts per second, several times more than the previously reported
rates from room-temperature quantum emitters