2017/10/24 by Jamie M. Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald, Jamie M., Vincenzo Giannini +1
Engineering · Materials Science · #Copper-based nanomaterials and applications #FOS: Physical sciences #Gold and Silver Nanoparticles Synthesis and Applications #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Optics (physics.optics) #Plasmonic and Surface Plasmon Research
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1710.10157
openalex publication_date 2017/10/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We perform a study of the achievable field enhancement of plasmonic cascade\nnanolenses in the quantum and classical regimes, and explore the limits\nenforced at larger sizes by retardation and at smaller sizes by nonlocality and\nother quantum effects. We compare the near field response of a sodium nanolens\nwithin a local and nonlocal formalism and find that the increased electron-\nsurface scattering decreases the field enhancements by over an order of\nmagnitude. The large parameter space is explored, within the local\napproximation, for a number of plasmonic metals as well as the polar dielectric\nSiC. Using localised surface phonon polaritons, which can be excited in polar\ndielectrics, is an effective strategy for overcoming retardation due to the\nlower energy phonon frequency. Finally, we compare the nanolens against the\nmore usual dimer configuration, we find that the superior geometry depends\ncrucially on the material used, with noble metal nanolenses unlikely to offer\nbetter performance to equivalent dimers. Interestingly SiC nanolenses can offer\na larger maximum field enhancement compared to the corresponding dimer\nconfiguration, suggesting that future endeavours in constructing a nanolens\nshould be based on polar dielectrics.\n