2016/05/16 by Pavel Ginzburg, Diane J Roth, Diane Roth +16
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Metamaterial #Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications #Nanorod #Plasmon #Plasmonic and Surface Plasmon Research #Purcell effect #Quantum #Quantum dot #Quantum optics #Spontaneous emission #Strong Light-Matter Interactions #Transformation optics #physics.optics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/lsa.2016.273
arxiv created 2016/05/16 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex publication_date 2016/12/19 · arxiv updated 2017/09/13 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Light–matter interactions can be strongly modified by the surrounding environment. Here, we report on the first experimental observation of molecular spontaneous emission inside a highly non-local metamaterial based on a plasmonic nanorod assembly. We show that the emission process is dominated not only by the topology of its local effective medium dispersion, but also by the non-local response of the composite, so that metamaterials with different geometric parameters but the same local effective medium properties exhibit different Purcell factors. A record-high enhancement of a decay rate is observed, in agreement with the developed quantitative description of the Purcell effect in a non-local medium. An engineered material non-locality introduces an additional degree of freedom into quantum electrodynamics, enabling new applications in quantum information processing, photochemistry, imaging and sensing with macroscopic composites. A metamaterial engineered to have non-local properties is found to strongly affect the light emission of fluorescent dyes placed within it. Metamaterials can exhibit non-local properties—that is, behavior in one region depends on the state in another location—as they support coherent surface plasmons, which provide coupling between different positions within the medium. Pavel Ginzburg of King’s College London and his colleagues introduced four fluorophores into a metamaterial made up of an array of plasmonic gold nanorods and observed that the lifetime of spontaneous emission of the light emitters increased markedly in the metamaterial. They note that non-locality in engineered materials introduces an additional degree of freedom into quantum electrodynamics, which should enable new applications in areas such as quantum information processing and photochemistry.