From Event: SPIE Nanoscience + Engineering, 2018
Nanoplasmonic (meta-)materials and nanophotonics have the unique ability to confine light in extremely sub-wavelength volumes and thereby strongly enhance the effective strength of electromagnetic fields. Fundamentally, such high-field enhancement can alter the local density of states experienced by a photoactive molecule to unprecedented degrees and control its exchange of energy with light. For a sufficiently strong field enhancement, one enters the strong-coupling regime, where the energy exchange between the excited states of molecules/materials and plasmons is faster than the de-coherence processes of the system. As a result, the excitonic state of the molecule becomes entangled with the photonic mode, forming hybrid excitonic-photonic states. These hybrid-states are part light, part matter and allow for characteristic Rabi oscillations of atomic excitations to be observed. Until recently, the conditions for achieving strong-coupling were most commonly met at low temperatures, where de-coherence processes are suppressed. As a major step forward, we have recently demonstrated room-temperature strong coupling of single molecules in a plasmonic nano-cavity [1] which was achieved using a host-guest chemistry technique, controlling matter at the molecular level. Concurrently, linking nano-spectroscopy of quantum dots with strong coupling allows to lithographically realise a strong-coupling set-up that couples dark plasmonic modes and quantum dots [2]. Remarkably, through strong coupling we obtain spectroscopic access to otherwise veiled states (such as the charged trion state) enabled through a strong-coupling induced speed up of the radiative dynamics of the quantum dot states [3]. Considering the key importance of strong coupling in quantum optics our findings pave the road for a wide range of ultrafast quantum optics experiments and quantum technologies at ambient conditions. Moreover, the pronounced position-dependent spectral changes may lead to new types of quantum sensors and near-field quantum imaging modalities. Finally we shall consider strong coupling in hyperbolic metamaterials.
References
[1] R. Chikkaraddy, B. de Nijs, F. Benz, S. J. Barrow, O. A. Sherman, E. Rosta, A. Demetriadou, P. Fox, O. Hess and J. J. Baumberg, Nature 535, 127 (2016).
[2] N Kongsuwan, A Demetriadou, R. Chikkaraddy, F. Benz, V. A. Turek, U. F. Keyser, J. J. Baumberg and O. Hess, ACS Photonics 5, 186 (2017)
[3] H. Gross, J. M. Hamm, T. Tuffarelli, O. Hess and B. Hecht, Science Advances 4, eaar4906 (2018).
© (2018) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Ortwin Hess, "Strong coupling in nanoplasmonic cavities and metamaterials (Conference Presentation)," Proc. SPIE 10719, Metamaterials, Metadevices, and Metasystems 2018, 107190J (Presented at SPIE Nanoscience + Engineering: August 19, 2018; Published: 17 September 2018); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2322579.5836035294001.