Matthew LePain

Collective plasmonic oscillations in gold nanostrips arrays

Excitation of collective plasmonic modes and their effect on optical behavior are experimentally and theoretically studied in 1D arrays of gold nanostrips in comparison with continuous gold films with periodically modulated profile. In strips, the angular dependence of the reflectivity demonstrates a peak at the resonance condition as opposed to a dip observed in continuous sine wave gratings. In addition, an extremely narrow feature in the reflection is observed in strips and tentatively ascribed to the bright Wood-Rayleigh anomaly. Theoretical calculations based on the combined transfer-matrix coupled-wave analysis and coordinate transformation method are shown to fit the experimental angular and spectral behavior of the plasmonic resonances. The effects are also discussed in terms of a simple equivalent circuit model.

Ultimately Thin Metasurface Wave Plates

Optical properties of a metasurface which can be considered a monolayer of uniaxial metamaterials - parallel-plate and nanorod arrays – are investigated. It is shown that such metasurface acts as an ultimately thin sub-100 nm wave plate. This is achieved via an interplay of epsilon-near-zero and epsilon-near-pole behavior along different axes in the plane of the metasurface allowing for extremely rapid phase difference accumulation in very thin metasurface layers. These effects are shown to not be disrupted by non-locality and can be applied to the design of ultrathin wave plates, Pancharatnam-Berry phase optical elements and plasmon-carrying optical torque wrench devices.

Plasmon drag effect, theory and experiment

The proposed hot-electron-mediated plasmonic pressure model explains the observed relationship between plasmon drag emf and absorption, emphasizes its quantum plasmonics nature and allows for correct calculation of the emf in metal for the first time.

Collective plasmonic oscillations in nanostrips arrays and continuous sine-wave gratings. Comparative study

Gold nanostrip arrays exhibit collective plasmonic oscillations analogous to surface plasmon-polaritons in continuous films with a spatially modulated profile. Similarities and differences in optical behavior of continuous and discontinuous systems are studied experimentally and theoretically.

Plasmon drag effect in plasmonic metasurfaces

Plasmon drag effect (PLDE) is the generation of dc electric currents associated with the excitation and propagation of surface plasmon polaritons in metal nanostructured systems. In order to better understand the mechanism of the effect and explore its properties, we experimentally study PLDE in the dependence on light intensity, wavelength and angle of incidence in hyperbolic metasurfaces of different periodicity and surfaces with random roughness. The results are discussed theoretically in a frame of the hydrodynamic loss approach.