Wen-Bo Shi

Broadband light trapping and absorption of thin-film silicon sandwiched by trapezoidal surface and silver grating

In this work, we demonstrate the high optical absorption efficiency of a thin-film silicon solar cell. In thin-film solar cells, the efficiency is strongly dependent on light trapping by structures capable of exciting different resonance modes. Here, we consider a trapezoidal surface design that not only reduces reflection with a gradient index of refraction but also excites multiple cavity modes. The absorption can be enhanced further by combining a plasmonic structure, i.e., a silver grating. For comparison, we have separately simulated the silver grating structure, trapezoidal surface structure, and the combined structure. The combined structure retains all absorption effects shown by the individual components, achieving broadband absorption with a high efficiency. The investigations provide a unique design for high-performance solar cells of thin-film silicon.

Couple molecular excitons to surface plasmon polaritons in an organic-dye-doped nanostructured cavity

In this work, we demonstrate experimentally the hybrid coupling among molecular excitons, surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs), and Fabry-Perot (FP) mode in a nanostructured cavity, where a J-aggregates doped PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) layer is inserted between a silver grating and a thick silver film. By tuning the thickness of the doped PVA layer, the FP cavity mode efficiently couples with the molecular excitons, forming two nearly dispersion-free modes. The dispersive SPPs interact with these two modes while increasing the incident angle, leading to the formation of three hybrid polariton bands. By retrieving the mixing fractions of the polariton band components from the measured angular reflection spectra, we find all these three bands result from the strong coupling among SPPs, FP mode, and excitons. This work may inspire related studies on hybrid light-matter interactions, and achieve potential applications on multimode polariton lasers and optical spectroscopy.

Multimode photon-exciton coupling in an organic-dye-attached photonic quasicrystal

In this Letter, we present hybrid strong coupling between multiple photonic modes and excitons in an organic-dye-attached photonic quasicrystal. The excitons effectively interact with the photonic modes offered by the photonic quasicrystal, and multiple hybrid polariton bands are demonstrated in both experiments and calculations. Furthermore, by retrieving the measured dispersion map, we get the mixing fractions of photonic modes and excitons, and show that the polariton bands inherit not only the energy dispersion features, but also the damping behaviors from both the photonic modes and the excitons. Our investigation may inspire related studies on multimode light-matter interactions and achieve some potential applications for multimode sensors.

Dielectric lens guides in-plane propagation of surface plasmon polaritons

In this work, we present in-plane propagation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) guided by a single dielectric (Al₂O₃) subwavelength lens. By mounting a designed Al₂O₃ nanoparticle on the silver film, the effective index of a silver-Al₂O₃ interface is influenced by the particle thickness, then the phase difference between the silver-air and silver-Al₂O₃ interface can be utilized to modulate the in-plane propagation of SPPs. We show that an elliptical Al₂O₃ lens transforms the diffusive SPPs into a collimated beam, whose direction of propagation and beam width can be easily controlled. We also present that a triangular Al₂O₃ lens significantly reforms the SPPs to a Bessel beam, which possesses non-diffractive and self-healing properties. Our investigation provides unique way to guide the in-plane transport of SPPs by using dielectric subwavelength elements, which may achieve potential applications in plasmonic integrated circuits.

Strong Localization of Surface Plasmon Polaritons with Engineered Disorder

In this work, we experimentally demonstrate for the first time strong localization of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) at visible regime in metallic nanogratings with short-range correlated disorder. By increasing the degree of disorder, the confinement of SPPs is significantly enhanced, and the effective SPP propagation length dramatically shrinks. Strong localization of SPPs eventually emerges at visible regime, which is verified by the exponentially decayed fields and the vanishing autocorrelation function of the SPPs. Physically, the short-range correlated disorder induces strong interference among multiple scattered SPPs and provides an adequate fluctuation to effective permittivity, which leads to the localization effect. Our study demonstrates a unique opportunity for disorder engineering to manipulate light on nanoscale and may achieve various applications in random nanolasing, solar energy, and strong light-matter interactions.

Polarization-dependent strong coupling between surface plasmon polaritons and excitons in an organic-dye-doped nanostructure

In this work, we demonstrate polarization-dependent strong coupling between surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) and excitons in the J-aggregates-attached aperture array. It is shown that the excitons strongly couple with the polarization-dependent SPPs, and Rabi splittings are consequently observed. As a result, the polarization-dependent polariton bands are generated in the system. Increasing the incident angle, the polaritons disperse to higher energies under transverse-electric illumination, while the polaritons disperse to lower energies under transverse-magnetic illumination. Therefore, at different polarization incidence, we experimentally achieve distinct polaritons with opposite dispersion directions. In this way, tuning the polarization of the incident light, we can excite different polaritons whose energy propagates to different directions. Furthermore, by retrieving the mixing fractions of the components in these polariton bands, we find that the dispersion properties of the polaritons are inherited from both the SPPs and the excitons. Our investigation may inspire related studies on tunable photon-exciton interactions and achieve some potential applications on active polariton devices.