Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme
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DS: Fachverband Dünne Schichten
DS 10: Plasmonics and Nanophotonics I (Joint Session DS/O/HL)
DS 10.6: Talk
Tuesday, March 23, 2010, 11:45–12:00, H2
Optical antenna thermal emitters — •Jon Schuller1, Thomas Taubner1,2, and Mark Brongersma1 — 1Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA — 21. Physikalisches Institut, RWTH Aachen, Germany
Optical antennas are a critical component in nanophotonics research[1] and have been used to enhance nonlinear and Raman cross-sections and to make nanoscale optical probes [2]. In addition to their receiving properties, optical antennas can operate in broadcasting mode, and have been used to modify the emission rate[3] and direction [4] of individual molecules.
In these applications the antenna must operate at frequencies given by existing light emitters. Using thermal excitation of optical antennas, we bypass this limitation and realize emitters at infrared frequencies where sources are less readily available [5].
Specifically, we show that the thermal emission from a single SiC whisker antenna is attributable to well-defined, size- tunable Mie resonances. Furthermore, we derive a fundamental limit on the antenna emittance and argue theoretically that these structures are nearly ideal black-body antennas.
1. Schuck, P. J. et al., PRL 94, 017402 (2005).
2. Farahani, J. N., et al., PRL 95, 017402 (2005).
3. Kuhn, S., et al., PRL 97, 017402 (2006).
4. Taminiau, T. H., et al, Nature Photon. 2, 234-237 (2008).
5. Schuller, J.A. et al., Nature Photon. 3, 658-661 (2009).