Philippe Gogol

Giant coupling effect between metal nanoparticle chain and optical waveguide.

We demonstrate that the optical energy carried by a TE dielectric waveguide mode can be totally transferred into a transverse plasmon mode of a coupled metal nanoparticle chain. Experiments are performed at 1.5 μm. Mode coupling occurs through the evanescent field of the dielectric waveguide mode. Giant coupling effects are evidenced from record coupling lengths as short as ~560 nm. This result opens the way to nanometer scale devices based on localized plasmons in photonic integrated circuits.

Soft UV nanoimprint lithography-designed highly sensitive substrates for SERS detection

AbstractWe report on the use of soft UV nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) for the development of reproducible, millimeter-sized, and sensitive substrates for SERS detection. The used geometry for plasmonic nanostructures is the cylinder. Gold nanocylinders (GNCs) showed to be very sensitive and specific sensing surfaces. Indeed, we demonstrated that less than 4 ×106 avidin molecules were detected and contributed to the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) signal. Thus, the soft UV-NIL technique allows to obtain quickly very sensitive substrates for SERS biosensing on surfaces of 1 mm 2.

Kerr microscopy observations of magnetization process in microfabricated ferromagnetic wires

The magnetization process in microfabricated NiFe wires was observed using a Kerr microscope. Magnetic wires were made from a 20-nm-thick NiFe film by using lift-off techniques. Their width W and length L were designed as W=0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 μm and L=50 μm, respectively. One end of the wire was connected to a square shaped head with a side of 2W, which is designed to act as a domain wall source. In each wire, necks with different width of 0.2W, 0.6W, and 0.8W were introduced as artificial pinning sites of a domain wall. By using an oil-immersion lens (NA=1.3) and a Hg lamp, magnetization reversals in very narrow wires, as narrow as 0.5 μm, were clearly observed. It is confirmed that domain wall penetration, pinning, depinning, and also the direction of wall motion are controllable using square shaped head and necks with optimized width.

Design and optimization of a monolithically integratable InP-based optical waveguide isolator

The optimization design of the layer structure for a novel type of a 1.3 μm monolithically integrated InP-based optical waveguide isolator is presented. The concept of this component is based on introducing a nonreciprocal loss-gain behavior in a standard semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) structure by contacting the SOA with a transversely magnetized ferromagnetic metal contact, sufficiently close to the guiding and amplifying core of the SOA. The thus induced nonreciprocal complex transverse Kerr shift on the effective index of the guided TM modes, combined with a proper current injection, allows for forward transparency and backward optical extinction. We introduce two different optimization criteria for finding the optimal SOA layer structure, using two different figure-of-merit functions (FoM) for the device performance. The device performance is also compared for three different compositions of the CoxFe1−x(x=0,50,90) ferromagnetic transition metal alloy system. It is found that equiatomic (or quasi-equiatomic) CoFe alloys are the most suitable for this application. Depending on the used FoM, two technologically practical designs are proposed for a truly monolithically integrated optical waveguide isolator. It is also shown that these designs are robust with respect to variations in layer thicknesses and wavelength. Finally, we have derived an analytical expression that gives a better insight in the limit performance of a ferromagnetic metal-clad SOA-isolator in terms of metal parameters.

Integration of short gold nanoparticles chain on SOI waveguide toward compact integrated bio-sensors

We demonstrate the integration of short metal nanoparticle chains (L ≈700 nm) supporting localized surface plasmons in Silicon On Insulator (SOI) waveguides at telecom wavelengths. Nanoparticles are deposited on the waveguide top and excited through the evanescent field of the TE waveguide modes. Finite difference time domain calculations and waveguide transmission measurements reveal that almost all the TE mode energy can be transferred to nanoparticle chains at resonance. It is also shown that the transmission spectrum is very sensitive to the molecular environment of nanoparticles, thus opening the way towards ultra-compact sensors in guided plasmonics on SOI. An experimental demonstration is reported with octadecanthiol molecules for a detection volume as small as 0.26 attoliter.

Metallic nanoparticle chains on dielectric waveguides: coupled and uncoupled situations compared.

We investigate the optical behaviors of metallic nanoparticle (MNP) chains supporting localized surface plasmon (LSP) for different distances between particles. MNPs are excited through the fundamental TE mode of a silicon waveguide. Finite difference time domain (FDTD) calculations and optical power transmission measurements reveal three different behaviors. For short distances between particles, dipolar coupling occurs, and the MNP chain behaves as a waveguide. For the longest distances, nanoparticles are uncoupled, and the MNP chain acts as a LSP Bragg grating. Finally, for intermediate distances, we observe one behavior at a time, i.e. dipolar coupling or LSP Bragg reflection. There is only a small range of wavelengths within which both behaviors can coexist.

Integrated plasmonic nanotweezers for nanoparticle manipulation

We numerically demonstrate that short gold nanoparticle chains coupled to traditional SOI waveguides allow conceiving surface plasmon-based nanotweezers. This configuration provides for jumpless control of the trapping position of a nano-object as a function of the excitation wavelength, allowing for linear repositioning. This novel feature can be captivating for the conception of compact integrated optomechanical nanoactuators.

Nonlinear optical properties of interconnected gold nanoparticles on silicon

We report second harmonic generation (SHG) measurements in reflectivity from chains of gold nanoparticles interconnected with metallic bridges. We measured more than 30 times a SHG enhancement when a surface plasmon resonance was excited in the chains of nanoparticles, which was influenced by coupling due to the electrical connectivity of the bridges. This enhancement was confirmed by rigorous coupled wave method calculations and came from high localization of the electric field at the bridge. The introduction of 10% random defects into the chains of nanoparticles dropped the SHG by a factor of 2 and was shown to be very sensitive to the fundamental wavelength

Experimental demonstration of anomalous nonreciprocal optical response of 1D periodic magnetoplasmonic nanostructures.

In this paper we analyze the optical and transversal magnetooptical (MO) response of magnetoplasmonic (MP) nanostructures. The MP structure is a 1D periodic gold grating fabricated by lift-off technique on the MO dielectric substrate (Bi-substituted yttrium iron garnet BixY3−xFe5O12). Following our recent theoretical work (Opt. Express 21, pp. 2174121755, Sep 2013.), we confirm here experimentally the predicted dependence of the MO response on the geometry of the grating, that is directly attributed to the anticrossing behavior of the Fabry-Perot (FP) resonance in the grating’s slits and the surface plasmon resonances (SPPs) at its interfaces. The experimental results were achieved by Mueller matrix spectroscopic ellipsometry. Observed fine tuning of the transverse magneto-optic Kerr opens up new possibilities for the design of compact nonreciprocal devices.

Plasmonic nanotweezers composed by a gold dimer for ultra-effective nanoparticles trapping

A plasmonic nanotweezers based on the coupling between a gold dimer and a SOI waveguide is here numerically investigated. By optimizing the dimer gap size, an ultra-high value of the stiffness is achieved.