Dielectric travelling wave antennas for directional light emission.

We present a combined experimental and numerical study of the far-field emission properties of optical travelling wave antennas made from low-loss dielectric materials. The antennas considered here are composed of two simple building blocks, a director and a reflector, deposited on a glass substrate. Colloidal quantum dots placed in the feed gap between the two elements serve as internal light source. The emission profile of the antenna is mainly formed by the director while the reflector suppresses backward emission. Systematic studies of the director dimensions as well as variation of antenna material show that the effective refractive index of the director primarily governs the far-field emission pattern. Below cut off, i.e., if the director's effective refractive index is smaller than the refractive index of the substrate, the main lobe results from leaky wave emission along the director. In contrast, if the director supports a guided mode, the emission predominately originates from the end facet of the director.

Magnetic polarization in the optical absorption of metallic nanoparticles.

We find remarkably strong absorption due to magnetic polarization in common colloidal and lithographic metallic nanoparticles. Our analysis is based upon a thorough examination of the dipolar electric and magnetic polarizabilities for representative combinations of nanoparticle composition, size, and morphology. We illustrate this concept by first discussing absorption in metallic spheres and then exploring ellipsoids, disks, and rings. Magnetic polarization reaches ~ 90% of the total absorption in 100 nm disks and rings for wavelengths above 1 µm under co-linear electric and magnetic irradiation. Our results demonstrate that the magnetic contribution to absorption cannot be naively overlooked, as it can largely exceed the contribution of electric polarization.

Transmitting hertzian optical nanoantenna with free-electron feed.

A pair of coupled gold nanorods excited by a beam of free electrons acts as a transmitting Hertzian antenna in the optical part of the spectrum. Significantly enhanced resonant emission is observed from the antenna when the electron beam is injected around the junction between the rods, where the local density of electromagnetic states is elevated.

Nano-optical trapping of Rayleigh particles and Escherichia coli bacteria with resonant optical antennas.

Immobilizing individual living microorganisms at designated positions in space is important to study their metabolism and to initiate an in situ scrutiny of the complexity of life at the nanoscale. While optical tweezers enable the trapping of large cells at the focus of a laser beam, they face difficulties in maintaining them steady and can become invasive and produce substantial damage that prevents preserving the organisms intact for sufficient time to be studied. Here we demonstrate a novel optical trapping scheme that allows us to hold living Escherichia coli bacteria for several hours using moderate light intensities. We pattern metallic nanoantennas on a glass substrate to produce strong light intensity gradients responsible for the trapping mechanism. Several individual bacteria are trapped simultaneously with their orientation fixed by the asymmetry of the antennas. This unprecedented immobilization of bacteria opens an avenue toward observing nanoscopic processes associated with cell metabolism, as well as the response of individual live microorganisms to external stimuli, much in the same way as pluricellular organisms are studied in biology.