Roman E. Noskov

Subwavelength modulational instability and plasmon oscillons in nanoparticle arrays.

We study modulational instability in nonlinear arrays of subwavelength metallic nanoparticles and analyze numerically nonlinear scenarios of the instability development. We demonstrate that modulational instability can lead to the formation of regular periodic or quasiperiodic modulations of the polarization. We reveal that such nonlinear nanoparticle arrays can support long-lived standing and moving oscillating nonlinear localized modes--plasmon oscillons.

Giant Optical Activity of Quantum Dots, Rods, and Disks with Screw Dislocations

For centuries mankind has been modifying the optical properties of materials: first, by elaborating the geometry and composition of structures made of materials found in nature, later by structuring the existing materials at a scale smaller than the operating wavelength. Here we suggest an original approach to introduce optical activity in nanostructured materials, by theoretically demonstrating that conventional achiral semiconducting nanocrystals become optically active in the presence of screw dislocations, which can naturally develop during the nanocrystal growth. We show the new properties to emerge due to the dislocation-induced distortion of the crystal lattice and the associated alteration of the nanocrystal’s electronic subsystem, which essentially modifies its interaction with external optical fields. The g-factors of intraband transitions in our nanocrystals are found comparable with dissymmetry factors of chiral plasmonic complexes, and exceeding the typical g-factors of chiral molecules by a factor of 1000. Optically active semiconducting nanocrystals—with chiral properties controllable by the nanocrystal dimensions, morphology, composition and blending ratio—will greatly benefit chemistry, biology and medicine by advancing enantiomeric recognition, sensing and resolution of chiral molecules.

Birefringent left-handed metamaterials and perfect lenses for vectorial fields

In this paper, possibilities of wave focussing by a birefringent left-handed lens are discussed. It is shown that such lenses can focus either TE or TM polarized waves or both of them, with a varying distance between TE and TM images, and this property allows expanding the applicability limits of the perfect lenses.

CW-pumped single-pass frequency comb generation by resonant optomechanical nonlinearity in dual-nanoweb fiber

Recent experiments in the field of strong optomechanical interactions have focused on either structures that are simultaneously optically and mechanically resonant, or photonic crystal fibers pumped by a laser intensity modulated at a mechanical resonant frequency of the glass core. Here, we report continuous-wave (CW) pumped self-oscillations of a fiber nanostructure that is only mechanically resonant. Since the mechanism has close similarities to stimulated Raman scattering by molecules, it has been named stimulated Raman-like scattering. The structure consists of two submicrometer thick glass membranes (nanowebs), spaced by a few hundred nanometers and supported inside a 12-cm-long capillary fiber. It is driven into oscillation by a CW pump laser at powers as low as a few milliwatts. As the pump power is increased above threshold, a comb of Stokes and anti-Stokes lines is generated, spaced by the oscillator frequency of ∼6  MHz. An unprecedentedly high Raman-like gain of ∼4×106  m−1 W−1 is inferred after analysis of the experimental data. Resonant frequencies as high as a few hundred megahertz are possible through the use of thicker and less-wide webs, suggesting that the structure can find application in passive mode-locking of fiber lasers, optical frequency metrology, and spectroscopy.

Subwavelength plasmonic kinks in arrays of metallic nanoparticles.

We analyze nonlinear effects in optically driven arrays of nonlinear metallic nanoparticles. We demonstrate that such plasmonic systems are characterized by a bistable response, and they can support the propagation of dissipative switching waves (or plasmonic kinks) connecting the states with different polarization. We study numerically the properties of such plasmonic kinks which are characterized by a subwavelength extent and a tunable velocity.

Oscillons, solitons, and domain walls in arrays of nonlinear plasmonic nanoparticles

The study of metal nanoparticles plays a central role in the emerging novel technologies employing optics beyond the diffraction limit. Combining strong surface plasmon resonances, high intrinsic nonlinearities and deeply subwavelength scales, arrays of metal nanoparticles offer a unique playground to develop novel concepts for light manipulation at the nanoscale. Here we suggest a novel principle to control localized optical energy in chains of nonlinear subwavelength metal nanoparticles based on the fundamental nonlinear phenomenon of modulation instability. In particular, we demonstrate that modulation instability can lead to the formation of long-lived standing and moving nonlinear localized modes of several distinct types such as bright and dark solitons, oscillons, and domain walls. We analyze the properties of these nonlinear localized modes and reveal different scenarios of their dynamics including transformation of one type of mode to another. We believe this work paves a way towards the development of nonlinear nanophotonics circuitry.

Plasmon-induced terahertz radiation generation due to symmetry breaking in a nonlinear metallic nanodimer

We suggest an alternative way of terahertz radiation generation utilizing the effect of spontaneous symmetry breaking in a nonlinear metallic nanodimer illuminated by light. We show that the symmetry breaking is caused by instability of plasmon eigenmodes of the system and can lead either to spontaneous magnetization of the dimer or to a periodic self-modulation regime of light scattering. We find that the modulation frequency lies in the terahertz band and may be tuned within a wide range.

Dissipative plasmon solitons in graphene nanodisk arrays

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia (project 14.124.13.6087-MK) and the Australian Research Council. L.A.S. acknowledges support from the Russian Science Foundation, Grant No. 14-12-00811.

Nanoradar based on nonlinear dimer nanoantenna

We introduce the concept of a nanoradar based on the operation of a nonlinear plasmonic nanoantenna. The nanoradar action originates from modulational instability occurring in a dimer nanoantenna consisting of two subwavelength nonlinear nanoparticles. Modulation instability causes a dynamical energy exchange between the nanoantenna eigenmodes resulting in periodic scanning of the nanoantenna scattering pattern. Such nanoradar demonstrates a wide scanning sector, low operation threshold, and ultrafast time response being potentially useful for many applications in nanophotonics circuitry.

Optical bistability of planar metal/dielectric nonlinear nanostructures

We study theoretically a nonlinear response of the planar metal/dielectric nanostructures constituted from periodical array of ultra thin silver layers and the layers of Kerr-like nonlinear dielectric. We predict hysteresis-type dependences of the components of the tensor of effective dielectric permittivity on the field intensity allowing the change in material transmission properties from transparent to opaque and back at extremely low intensities of the light. It makes possible to control the light by light in all-optical nanoscale devices and circuits.