Enhancement and Inhibition of Spontaneous Photon Emission by dielectric photonic antennas

Mie resonators, or high-index dielectric nanoparticles, have recently been proposed as new building blocks to produce metamaterials1, metasurfaces2 or optical antennas3. However, all prior studies have focused on the passive... [ view full abstract ]

Mie resonators, or high-index dielectric nanoparticles, have recently been proposed as new building blocks to produce metamaterials¹, metasurfaces² or optical antennas³. However, all prior studies have focused on the passive resonant scattering properties of dielectric particles without demonstrating their influence on active materials, a property that is crucial for nanoscale photon management. In this report, we provide the first experimental demonstration that silicon-based nanoantennas can either enhance or inhibit spontaneous emission from fluorescent molecules at the nanoscale (Figure 1).

Figure 1: (a) Principal of the experiment: a fluorescent nanosphere is attached at the end of a near-field tip and placed in close proximity to a dielectric photonic antenna. (b, c) Two dimensions of dielectric antennas are considered to be either on resonance or out of resonance at the emission wavelength of the fluorescent nanosphere (d). (e) Enhancement or inhibition of the fluorescent nanosphere spontaneous emission in the vicinity of the dielectric nanoantennas.

Using scanning probe microscopy, we analyse quantitatively the near-field interaction between a fluorescent nanosphere and silicon nanodisks in three dimensions and at the nanoscale. Furthermore, in this study we highlight the ability of dielectric nanoantennas to increase the far-field collection of spontaneously emitted photons, in excellent agreement with numerical simulations. These results are an essential contribution to the new field of Mie resonators, at the crossroads of plasmonics and dielectric microcavities, as they demonstrate the ability of high-index dielectric nanostructures to manipulate solid-state emitters at the nanoscale and at room temperature. 

REFERENCES 

1. Moitra, P., Yang, Y., Anderson, Z., Kravchenko, I. I., Briggs, D. P. and Valentine, J. “Realization of an all-dielectric zero-index optical metamaterial”, Nat. Photon. 7, 791, 2013.

2. Spinelli, P., Verschuuren, M. A. and Polman, A. “Broadband omnidirectional antireflection coating based on subwavelength surface Mie resonators” Nat. Commun. 3, 692, 2012.

3. Fu, Y. H., Kuznetsov, A. I., Miroshnichenko, A. A., Feng Yu, Y. and Luk’yanchuk, B.“Directional visible light scattering by silicon nanoparticles” Nat. Commun. 4, 1527 (2013).