Metallic Nano-antennas are known to enhance the electric field in their vicinity by orders of magnitude, thus enhancing light-matter interactions [1].One of the best examples for enhanced light-matter interactions around nano-antennas is the nonlinear process of second harmonic generation (SHG), which is dependent on the incident optical power in a quadratic fashion, and therefore serves as a direct measure for the enhancement of the electric field. While metals have strong natural nonlinearity, the proper nonlinear mode-matching conditions must be fulfilled, otherwise the nonlinear response will be diminished and will not be coupled to radiativemodes [2,3].
In this work we design and demonstrate a new type of gap nano-antenna for the purpose of enhancing SHG by considering phase-matching conditions and optimizing our design for generating a second harmonic from a principal pump wavelength of 800 nm. In order to overcome intraband transitions in Au, we have fabricated nano-antennas of Al, and characterized their linear and nonlinear response by far-field transmission spectroscopy and short pulse illumination. We report the results and conclusions of our research and discuss the general considerations of tailoring nano-antennas for specific purposes.
References:
[1] Novotny L, van Hulst N. Antennas for light. Nat Photon. 2011 Feb;5(2):83–90.
[2] Thyagarajan K, Rivier S, Lovera A, Martin OJF. Enhanced second-harmonic generation from double resonant plasmonic antennae. Opt Express. 2012 Jun 4;20(12):12860–5.
[3] Ginzburg P, Krasavin A, Sonnefraud Y, Murphy A, Pollard RJ, Maier SA, et al. Nonlinearly coupled localized plasmon resonances: Resonant second-harmonic generation. Phys Rev B. 2012 Aug 13;86(8):085422.
jonathan.bardavid@mail.huji.ac.il