Optical Tellegen metamaterial with spontaneous magnetization.

The nonreciprocal magnetoelectric effect, also known as the Tellegen effect, promises a number of groundbreaking phenomena connected to fundamental (e.g., electrodynamics of axion and relativistic matter) and applied physics (e.g., magnetless isolators). We propose a three-dimensional metamaterial with an isotropic and resonant Tellegen response in the visible frequency range. The metamaterial is formed by randomly oriented bi-material nanocylinders in a host medium. Each nanocylinder consists of a ferromagnet in a single-domain magnetic state and a high-permittivity dielectric operating near the magnetic Mie-type resonance. The proposed metamaterial requires no external magnetic bias and operates on the spontaneous magnetization of the nanocylinders. By leveraging the emerging magnetic Weyl semimetals, we further show how a giant bulk effective magnetoelectric effect can be achieved in a proposed metamaterial, exceeding that of natural materials by almost four orders of magnitude.

Sub-picosecond collapse of molecular polaritons to pure molecular transition in plasmonic photoswitch-nanoantennas.

Molecular polaritons are hybrid light-matter states that emerge when a molecular transition strongly interacts with photons in a resonator. At optical frequencies, this interaction unlocks a way to explore and control new chemical phenomena at the nanoscale. Achieving such control at ultrafast timescales, however, is an outstanding challenge, as it requires a deep understanding of the dynamics of the collectively coupled molecular excitation and the light modes. Here, we investigate the dynamics of collective polariton states, realized by coupling molecular photoswitches to optically anisotropic plasmonic nanoantennas. Pump-probe experiments reveal an ultrafast collapse of polaritons to pure molecular transition triggered by femtosecond-pulse excitation at room temperature. Through a synergistic combination of experiments and quantum mechanical modelling, we show that the response of the system is governed by intramolecular dynamics, occurring one order of magnitude faster with respect to the uncoupled excited molecule relaxation to the ground state.

Ultrafast Demagnetization Control in Magnetophotonic Surface Crystals.

Magnetic memory combining plasmonics and magnetism is poised to dramatically increase the bit density and energy efficiency of light-assisted ultrafast magnetic storage, thanks to nanoplasmon-driven enhancement and confinement of light. Here we devise a new path for that, simultaneously enabling light-driven bit downscaling, reduction of the required energy for magnetic memory writing, and a subtle control over the degree of demagnetization in a magnetophotonic surface crystal. It features a regular array of truncated-nanocone-shaped Au-TbCo antennas showing both localized plasmon and surface lattice resonance modes. The ultrafast magnetization dynamics of the nanoantennas show a 3-fold resonant enhancement of the demagnetization efficiency. The degree of demagnetization is further tuned by activating surface lattice modes. This reveals a platform where ultrafast demagnetization is localized at the nanoscale and its extent can be controlled at will, rendering it multistate and potentially opening up so-far-unforeseen nanomagnetic neuromorphic-like systems operating at femtosecond time scales controlled by light.

Magneto-Optical Activity in Nonmagnetic Hyperbolic Nanoparticles.

Active nanophotonics can be realized by controlling the optical properties of materials with external magnetic fields. Here, we explore the influence of optical anisotropy on the magneto-optical activity in nonmagnetic hyperbolic nanoparticles. We demonstrate that the magneto-optical response is driven by the hyperbolic dispersion via the coupling of metallic-induced electric and dielectric-induced magnetic dipolar optical modes with static magnetic fields. Magnetic circular dichroism experiments confirm the theoretical predictions and reveal tunable magneto-optical activity across the visible and near infrared spectral range.

Ultrafast demagnetization in a ferrimagnet under electromagnetic field funneling.

The quest to improve the density, speed and energy efficiency of magnetic memory storage has led to the exploration of new ways of optically manipulating magnetism at the ultrafast time scale, in particular in ferrimagnetic alloys. While all-optical magnetization switching is well-established on the femtosecond timescale, lateral nanoscale confinement and thus the potential significant reduction of the size of the magnetic element remains an outstanding challenge. Here we employ resonant electromagnetic energy funneling through plasmon nanoantennas to influence the demagnetization dynamics of a ferrimagnetic TbCo alloy thin film. We demonstrate how Ag nanoring-shaped antennas under resonant optical femtosecond pumping reduce the overall demagnetization in the underlying films up to three times compared to non-resonant illumination. We attribute such a substantial reduction to the nanoscale confinement of the demagnetization process. This is qualitatively supported by the electromagnetic simulations that strongly evidence the resonant optical energy-funneling to the nanoscale from the nanoantennas into the ferrimagnetic film. This observation is an important step for reaching deterministic ultrafast all-optical magnetization switching at the nanoscale in such systems, opening a route to develop nanoscale ultrafast magneto-optics.

Laser-driven proton acceleration from ultrathin foils with nanoholes.

Structured solid targets are widely investigated to increase the energy absorption of high-power laser pulses so as to achieve efficient ion acceleration. Here we report the first experimental study of the maximum energy of proton beams accelerated from sub-micrometric foils perforated with holes of nanometric size. By showing the lack of energy enhancement in comparison to standard flat foils, our results suggest that the high contrast routinely achieved with a double plasma mirror does not prevent damaging of the nanostructures prior to the main interaction. Particle-in-cell simulations support that even a short scale length plasma, formed in the last hundreds of femtoseconds before the peak of an ultrashort laser pulse, fills the holes and hinders enhanced electron heating. Our findings reinforce the need for improved laser contrast, as well as for accurate control and diagnostics of on-target plasma formation.

Colloidal lithography nanostructured Pd/PdO x core-shell sensor for ppb level H2S detection.

In this work we report on plasma oxidation of palladium (Pd) to form reliable palladium/palladium oxide (Pd/PdO x ) core-shell sensor for ppb level H2S detection and its performance improvement through nanostructuring using hole-mask colloidal lithography (HCL). The plasma oxidation parameters and the sensor operating conditions are optimized to arrive at a sensor device with high sensitivity and repeatable response for H2S. The plasma oxidized palladium/palladium oxide sensor shows a response of 43.1% at 3 ppm H2S at the optimum operating temperature of 200 °C with response and recovery times of 24 s and 155 s, respectively. The limit of detection (LoD) of the plasma oxidised beam is 10 ppb. We further integrate HCL, a bottom-up and cost-effective process, to create nanodiscs of fixed diameter of 100 nm and varying heights (10, 15 and 20 nm) on 10 nm thin Pd beam which is subsequently plasma oxidized to improve the H2S sensing characteristics. The nanostructured Pd/PdO x sensor with nanodiscs of 100 nm diameter and 10 nm height shows an enhancement in sensing performance by 11.8% at same operating temperature and gas concentration. This nanostructured sensor also shows faster response and recovery times (15 s and 100 s, respectively) compared to the unstructured Pd/PdO x counterpart together with an experimental LoD of 10 ppb and the estimated limit going all the way down to 2 ppb. Material characterization of the fabricated Pd/PdO x sensors is done using UV-vis spectroscopy and x-ray photoemission spectroscopy.

Magnetic Control of the Chiroptical Plasmonic Surfaces.

A major challenge facing plasmon nanophotonics is the poor dynamic tunability. A functional nanophotonic element would feature the real-time sizable tunability of transmission, reflection of light's intensity or polarization over a broad range of wavelengths, and would be robust and easy to integrate. Several approaches have been explored so far including mechanical deformation, thermal, or refractive index effects, and all-optical switching. Here we devise an ultrathin chiroptical surface, built on two-dimensional nanoantennas, where the chiral light transmission is controlled by the externally applied magnetic field. The magnetic field-induced modulation of the far-field chiroptical response with this surface exceeds 100% in the visible and near-infrared spectral ranges, opening the route for nanometer-thin magnetoplasmonic light-modulating surfaces tuned in real time and featuring a broad spectral response.

Solar Transparent Radiators by Optical Nanoantennas.

Architectural windows are a major cause of thermal discomfort as the inner glazing during cold days can be several degrees colder than the indoor air. Mitigating this, the indoor temperature has to be increased, leading to unavoidable thermal losses. Here we present solar thermal surfaces based on complex nanoplasmonic antennas that can raise the temperature of window glazing by up to 8 K upon solar irradiation while transmitting light with a color rendering index of 98.76. The nanoantennas are directional, can be tuned to absorb in different spectral ranges, and possess a structural integrity that is not substrate-dependent, and thus they open up for application on a broad range of surfaces.

Multiscale conformal pattern transfer.

We demonstrate a method for seamless transfer from a parent flat substrate of basically any lithographic top-down or bottom-up pattern onto essentially any kind of surface. The nano- or microscale patterns, spanning macroscopic surface areas, can be transferred with high conformity onto a large variety of surfaces when such patterns are produced on a thin carbon film, grown on top of a sacrificial layer. The latter allows lifting the patterns from the flat parent substrate onto a water-air interface to be picked up by the host surface of choice. We illustrate the power of this technique by functionalizing broad range of materials including glass, plastics, metals, rough semiconductors and polymers, highlighting the potential applications in in situ colorimetry of the chemistry of materials, anti-counterfeit technologies, biomolecular and biomedical studies, light-matter interactions at the nanoscale, conformal photovoltaics and flexible electronics.

Highly conformal fabrication of nanopatterns on non-planar surfaces.

While the number of techniques for patterning materials at the nanoscale exponentially increases, only a handful of methods approach the conformal patterning of strongly non-planar surfaces. Here, using the direct surface self-assembly of colloids by electrostatics, we produce highly conformal bottom-up nanopatterns with a short-range order. We illustrate the potential of this approach by devising functional nanopatterns on highly non-planar substrates such as pyramid-textured silicon substrates and inherently rough polycrystalline films. We further produce functionalized polycrystalline thin-film silicon solar cells with enhanced optical performance. The perspective presented here to pattern essentially any surface at the nanoscale, in particular surfaces with high inherent roughness or with microscale features, opens new possibilities in a wide range of advanced technologies from affordable photovoltaics and optoelectronics to cellular engineering.

Disordered nanostructures by hole-mask colloidal lithography for advanced light trapping in silicon solar cells.

We report on the fabrication of disordered nanostructures by combining colloidal lithography and silicon etching. We show good control of the short-range ordered colloidal pattern for a wide range of bead sizes from 170 to 850 nm. The inter-particle spacing follows a Gaussian distribution with the average distance between two neighboring beads (center to center) being approximately twice their diameter, thus enabling the nanopatterning with dimensions relevant to the light wavelength scale. The disordered nanostructures result in a lower integrated reflectance (8.1%) than state-of-the-art random pyramid texturing (11.7%) when fabricated on 700 µm thick wafers. When integrated in a 1.1 µm thin crystalline silicon slab, the absorption is enhanced from 24.0% up to 64.3%. The broadening of resonant modes present for the disordered nanopattern offers a more broadband light confinement compared to a periodic nanopattern. Owing to its simplicity, versatility and the degrees of freedom it offers, this potentially low-cost bottom-up nanopatterning process opens perspectives towards the integration of advanced light-trapping schemes in thin solar cells.

Active magnetoplasmonic ruler.

Plasmon rulers are an emerging concept in which the strong near-field coupling of plasmon nanoantenna elements is employed to obtain structural information at the nanoscale. Here, we combine nanoplasmonics and nanomagnetism to conceptualize a magnetoplasmonic dimer nanoantenna that would be able to report nanoscale distances while optimizing its own spatial orientation. The latter constitutes an active operation in which a dynamically optimized optical response per measured unit length allows for the measurement of small and large nanoscale distances with about 2 orders of magnitude higher precision than current state-of-the-art plasmon rulers. We further propose a concept to optically measure the nanoscale response to the controlled application of force with a magnetic field.

Ultrasensitive and label-free molecular-level detection enabled by light phase control in magnetoplasmonic nanoantennas.

Systems allowing label-free molecular detection are expected to have enormous impact on biochemical sciences. Research focuses on materials and technologies based on exploiting localized surface plasmon resonances in metallic nanostructures. The reason for this focused attention is their suitability for single-molecule sensing, arising from intrinsically nanoscopic sensing volume and the high sensitivity to the local environment. Here we propose an alternative route, which enables radically improved sensitivity compared with recently reported plasmon-based sensors. Such high sensitivity is achieved by exploiting the control of the phase of light in magnetoplasmonic nanoantennas. We demonstrate a manifold improvement of refractometric sensing figure-of-merit. Most remarkably, we show a raw surface sensitivity (that is, without applying fitting procedures) of two orders of magnitude higher than the current values reported for nanoplasmonic sensors. Such sensitivity corresponds to a mass of ~ 0.8 ag per nanoantenna of polyamide-6.6 (n=1.51), which is representative for a large variety of polymers, peptides and proteins.

Magnetoplasmonic design rules for active magneto-optics.

Light polarization rotators and nonreciprocal optical isolators are essential building blocks in photonics technology. These macroscopic passive devices are commonly based on magneto-optical Faraday and Kerr polarization rotation. Magnetoplasmonics, the combination of magnetism and plasmonics, is a promising route to bring these devices to the nanoscale. We introduce design rules for highly tunable active magnetoplasmonic elements in which we can tailor the amplitude and sign of the Kerr response over a broad spectral range.

Nanoplasmon-enabled macroscopic thermal management.

In numerous applications of energy harvesting via transformation of light into heat the focus recently shifted towards highly absorptive nanoplasmonic materials. It is currently established that noble metals-based absorptive plasmonic platforms deliver significant light-capturing capability and can be viewed as super-absorbers of optical radiation. Naturally, approaches to the direct experimental probing of macroscopic temperature increase resulting from these absorbers are welcomed. Here we derive a general quantitative method of characterizing heat-generating properties of optically absorptive layers via macroscopic thermal imaging. We further monitor macroscopic areas that are homogeneously heated by several degrees with nanostructures that occupy a mere 8% of the surface, leaving it essentially transparent and evidencing significant heat generation capability of nanoplasmon-enabled light capture. This has a direct bearing to a large number of applications where thermal management is crucial.

Tuning the magneto-optical response of nanosize ferromagnetic Ni disks using the phase of localized plasmons.

We explore the influence of the phase of localized plasmon resonances on the magneto-optical activity of nanoferromagnets. We demonstrate that these systems can be described as two orthogonal damped oscillators coupled by the spin-orbit interaction. We prove that only the spin-orbit induced transverse plasmon plays an active role on the magneto-optical properties by controlling the relative amplitude and phase lag between the two oscillators. Our theoretical predictions are fully confirmed by magneto-optical Kerr effect and optical extinction measurements in nanostructures of different size and shape.

Polarizability and magnetoplasmonic properties of magnetic general nanoellipsoids.

An approach to compute the polarizability tensor of magnetic nanoparticles having general ellipsoidal shape is presented. We find a surprisingly excellent quantitative agreement between calculated and experimental magneto-optical spectra measured in the polar Kerr configuration from nickel nanodisks of large size (exceeding 100 nm) with circular and elliptical shape. In spite of its approximations and simplicity, the formalism presented here captures the essential physics of the interplay between magneto-optical activity and the plasmonic resonance of the individual particle. The results highlight the key role of the dynamic depolarization effects to account for the magneto-optical properties of plasmonic nanostructures.

Designer magnetoplasmonics with nickel nanoferromagnets.

We introduce a new perspective on magnetoplasmonics in nickel nanoferromagnets by exploiting the phase tunability of the optical polarizability due to localized surface plasmons and simultaneous magneto-optical activity. We demonstrate how the concerted action of nanoplasmonics and magnetization can manipulate the sign of rotation of the reflected light's polarization (i.e., to produce Kerr rotation reversal) in ferromagnetic nanomaterials and, further, how this effect can be dynamically controlled and employed to devise conceptually new schemes for biochemosensing.