Limits of Babinet's principle for solid and hollow plasmonic antennas.

We present an experimental and theoretical study of Babinet's principle of complementarity in plasmonics. We have used spatially-resolved electron energy loss spectroscopy and cathodoluminescence to investigate electromagnetic response of elementary plasmonic antenna: gold discs and complementary disc-shaped apertures in a gold layer. We have also calculated their response to the plane wave illumination. While the qualitative validity of Babinet's principle has been confirmed, quantitative differences have been found related to the energy and quality factor of the resonances and the magnitude of related near fields. In particular, apertures were found to exhibit stronger interaction with the electron beam than solid antennas, which makes them a remarkable alternative of the usual plasmonic-antennas design. We also examine the possibility of magnetic near field imaging based on the Babinet's principle.

Boundary element method for 2D materials and thin films.

2D materials emerge as a viable platform for the control of light at the nanoscale. In this context the need has arisen for a fast and reliable tool capable of capturing their strictly 2D nature in 3D light scattering simulations. So far, 2D materials and their patterned structures (ribbons, discs, etc.) have been mostly treated as very thin films of subnanometer thickness with an effective dielectric function derived from their 2D optical conductivity. In this study an extension to the existing framework of the boundary element method (BEM) with 2D materials treated as a conductive interface between two media is presented. The testing of our enhanced method on problems with known analytical solutions reveals that for certain types of tasks the new modification is faster than the original BEM algorithm. Furthermore, the representation of 2D materials as an interface allows us to simulate problems in which their optical properties depend on spatial coordinates. Such spatial dependence can occur naturally or can be tailored artificially to attain new functional properties.

Spatially resolved electron energy loss spectroscopy of crescent-shaped plasmonic antennas.

We present a study of the optical properties of gold crescent-shaped antennas by means of electron energy loss spectroscopy. These structures exhibit particularly large field enhancement near their sharp features, support two non-degenerate dipolar (i.e., optically active) localised surface plasmon resonances, and are widely tunable by a choice of their shape and dimensions. Depending on the volume and shape, we resolved up to four plasmon resonances in metallic structures under study in the energy range of 0.8 - 2.4 eV: two dipolar and quadrupolar mode and a multimodal assembly. The boundary-element-method calculations reproduced the observed spectra and helped to identify the character of the resonances. The two lowest modes are of particular importance owing to their dipolar nature. Remarkably, they are both concentrated near the tips of the crescent, spectrally well resolved and their energies can be tuned between 0.8 - 1.5 eV and 1.2 - 2.0 eV, respectively. As the lower spectral range covers the telecommunication wavelengths 1.30 and 1.55 µm, we envisage the possible use of such nanostructures in infrared communication technology.

Doping induced spin state transition in LaCoO3: dynamical mean-field study.

Hole and electron doped LaCoO3 is studied using dynamical mean-field theory. The one-particle spectra are analyzed and compared to the available experimental data, in particular the x-ray absorption spectra. Analyzing the temporal spin-spin correlation functions we find the atomic intermediate spin state is not important for the observed Curie-Weiss susceptibility. Contrary to the commonly held view about the roles played by the t2g and eg electrons we find narrow quasiparticle bands of t2g character crossing the Fermi level accompanied by strongly damped eg excitations.

Spin state of negative charge-transfer material SrCoO(3).

We employ the combination of the density functional theory and the dynamical mean-field theory to investigate the electronic structure and magnetic properties of SrCoO(3), monocrystals of which were prepared recently. Our calculations lead to a ferromagnetic metal in agreement with experiment. We find that, contrary to some suggestions, the local moment in SrCoO(3) does not arise from intermediate spin state, but is a result of coherent superposition of many different atomic states. We discuss how the attribution of magnetic response to different atomic states in solids with local moments can be quantified.

Tuning the exciton binding energies in single self-assembled InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots by piezoelectric-induced biaxial stress.

We study the effect of an external biaxial stress on the light emission of single InGaAs/GaAs(001) quantum dots placed onto piezoelectric actuators. With increasing compression, the emission blueshifts and the binding energies of the positive trion (X+) and biexciton (XX) relative to the neutral exciton (X) show a monotonic increase. This phenomenon is mainly ascribed to changes in electron and hole localization and it provides a robust method to achieve color coincidence in the emission of X and XX, which is a prerequisite for the possible generation of entangled photon pairs via the recently proposed "time reordering" scheme.