Plasmonic nanoantennae are important candidates for metamaterials in the visible range. However, the fabrication of dense nanoantennae with various designs and small dimensions is still very challenging for nanoscale features with high aspect ratios. Demonstrated is a series of geometries of plasmonic nanocrystals with different designs and ultrasmall gaps using a one-step focused ion beam milling process. Optical characterisation of plasmonic nanoantennae has also been carried out to investigate the underlying physics. Theoretical calculations were also performed to verify the experimental results. The high fabrication quality nanostructures demonstrated may enable new applications in nanophotonics, giving rise to new opportunities for nanodevices.

References

1. 1)
  - 13. Liu, Y.J., Zheng, Y.B., Shi, J., Huang, H., Walker, T.R., Huang, T.J.: ‘Optically switchable gratings based on azo-dye-doped, polymer-dispersed liquid crystals’, Opt. Lett., 2009, 34, pp. 2351–2353 (doi: 10.1364/OL.34.002351).
2. 2)
  - 32. Scholder, O., Jefimovs, K., Shorubalko, I., Hafner, C., Sennhauser, U., Bona, G.L.: ‘Helium focused ion beam fabricated plasmonic antennas with sub-5 nm gaps’, Nanotechnology, 2013, 24, (39), p. 395301 (doi: 10.1088/0957-4484/24/39/395301).
3. 3)
  - 16. Li, W.D., Ding, F., Hu, J., Chou, S.Y.: ‘Three-dimensional cavity nanoantenna coupled plasmonic nanodots for ultrahigh and uniform surface-enhanced Raman scattering over large area’, Opt. Express, 2011, 19, pp. 3925–3936 (doi: 10.1364/OE.19.003925).
4. 4)
  - 6. Zhao, Y., Lin, S.S., Nawaz, A.A., et al: ‘Beam bending via plasmonic lenses’, Opt. Express, 2010, 18, pp. 23458–23465 (doi: 10.1364/OE.18.023458).
5. 5)
  - 4. Zhao, Y., Gan, D., Cui, J., Wang, C., Du, C., Luo, X.: ‘Super resolution imaging by compensating oblique lens with metallodielectric films’, Opt. Express, 2008, 16, pp. 5697–5707 (doi: 10.1364/OE.16.005697).
6. 6)
  - 9. Cummer, S.A., Schurig, D.: ‘One path to acoustic cloaking’, New J. Phys., 2007, 9, p. 45 (doi: 10.1088/1367-2630/9/3/045).
7. 7)
  - 22. Adato, R., Yanik, A.A., Wu, C.H., Shvets, G., Altug, H.: ‘Radiative engineering of plasmon lifetimes in embedded nanoantenna arrays’, Opt. Express, 2010, 18, pp. 4526–4537 (doi: 10.1364/OE.18.004526).
8. 8)
  - 33. Wang, Y., Boden, S.A., Bagnall, D.M., Rutt, H.N., de Groot, C.H.: ‘Helium ion beam milling to create a nano-structured domain wall magnetoresistance spin valve’, Nanotechnology, 2012, 23, (59), p. 395302 (doi: 10.1088/0957-4484/23/39/395302).
9. 9)
  - 19. Bonakdar, A., Mohseni, H.: ‘Impact of optical antennas on active optoelectronic devices’, Nanoscale, 2014, 6, pp. 10961–10974 (doi: 10.1039/C4NR02419B).
10. 10)
  - T. Ebbesen . Extraordinary optical transmission through sub-wavelength hole arrays. Nature , 667 - 669
11. 11)
  - 25. Smythe, E.J., Cubukcu, E., Capasso, F.: ‘Optical properties of surface plasmon resonances of coupled metallic nanorods’, Opt. Express, 2007, 15, pp. 7439–7447 (doi: 10.1364/OE.15.007439).
12. 12)
  - C. Genet , W.T. Ebbesen . Light in tiny holes. Nature , 39 - 46
13. 13)
  - 12. Liu, Y.J., Zheng, Y.B., Liou, J., Chiang, I.K., Khoo, I.C., Huang, T.J.: ‘All-optical modulation of localized surface plasmon coupling in a hybrid system composed of photo-switchable gratings and Au nanodisk arrays’, J. Phys. Chem. C, 2011, 115, pp. 7717–7722 (doi: 10.1021/jp111256u).
14. 14)
  - 28. Novotny, L., van Hulst, N.: ‘Antennas for light’, Nat. Photonics, 2011, 5, pp. 83–90 (doi: 10.1038/nphoton.2010.237).
15. 15)
  - 21. Bakker, R.M., Drachev, V.P., Liu, Z.T., et al: ‘Nanoantenna array-induced fluorescence enhancement and reduced lifetimes’, New J. Phys., 2008, 10, p. 125022 (doi: 10.1088/1367-2630/10/12/125022).
16. 16)
  - 20. Schäfer, C., Gollmer, D.A., Horrer, A., et al: ‘A single particle plasmon resonance study of 3D conical nanoantennas’, Nanoscale, 2013, 5, pp. 7861–7866 (doi: 10.1039/c3nr01292a).
17. 17)
  - 5. Zhao, Y., Nawaz, A.A., Lin, S.S., Hao, Q., Kiraly, B., Huang, T.J.: ‘Nanoscale super-resolution imaging via metal-dielectric metamaterial lens system’, J. Phys. D, Appl. Phys., 2011, 44, (41), pp. 415101–415107 (doi: 10.1088/0022-3727/44/41/415101).
18. 18)
  - 26. Hao, J.M., Wang, J., Liu, X.L., Padilla, W.J., Zhou, L., Qiu, M.: ‘High performance optical absorber based on a plasmonic metamaterial’, Appl. Phys. Lett., 2010, 96, p. 251104 (doi: 10.1063/1.3442904).
19. 19)
  - 23. DeRose, C.T., Kekatpure, R.D., Trotter, D.C., et al: ‘Electronically controlled optical beam-steering by an active phased array of metallic nanoantennas’, Opt. Express, 2013, 21, pp. 5198–5208 (doi: 10.1364/OE.21.005198).
20. 20)
  - 29. Black, L.J., Wang, Y.D., de Groot, C.H., Arbouet, A., Muskens, O.L.: ‘Optimal polarization conversion in coupled dimer plasmonic nanoantennas for metasurfaces’, ACS Nano, 2014, 8, (6), pp. 6390–6399 (doi: 10.1021/nn501889s).
21. 21)
  - W.L. Barnes , A. Dereux , T.W. Ebbesen . Surface plasmon subwavelength optics. Nature , 824 - 830
22. 22)
  - 15. Gu, Y., Li, H., Xu, S., Liu, Y., Xu, W.: ‘Evanescent field excited plasmonic nano-antenna for improving SERS signal’, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2013, 15, (37), pp. 15494–15498 (doi: 10.1039/c3cp52581c).
23. 23)
  - 14. Johnston, M.M.W., Wilson, D.M., Booksh, K.S., Cramer, J.: ‘Integrated optical computing: system on chip for surface plasmon resonance imaging’. Proc. Int. Conf. on IEEE Int. Symp. on Circuits and Systems, Kobe, Japan, May 2005, Vol. 4, pp. 3483–3486.
24. 24)
  - 31. Wang, Y., Abb, M., Boden, S.A., Aizpurua, J., de Groot, C.H., Muskens, O.L.: ‘Ultrafine control of partially loaded single plasmonic nanoantennas fabricated using e-beam lithography and helium ion beam milling’. Proc. CLEO: QELS_Fundamental Science, San Jose, CA, USA, 2014.
25. 25)
  - 8. Milton, G.W., Briane, M., Willis, J.R.: ‘On cloaking for elasticity and physical equations with a transformation invariant form’, New J. Phys., 2006, 8, p. 248 (doi: 10.1088/1367-2630/8/10/248).
26. 26)
  - 17. Li, Z.Y., Hattori, T.H., Parkinson, P., et al: ‘A plasmonic staircase nano-antenna device with strong electric field enhancement for surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) applications’, J. Phys. D, Appl. Phys., 2012, 45, p. 305102 (doi: 10.1088/0022-3727/45/30/305102).
27. 27)
  - 24. Lin, Y.K., Ting, H.W., Wang, C.Y., et al: ‘Au nanocrystal array/silicon nanoantennas as wavelength-selective photoswitches’, Nano Lett., 2013, 13, (6), pp. 2723–2731 (doi: 10.1021/nl400896c).
28. 28)
  - 11. Liu, Y.J., Hao, Q.Z., Smalley, J.S.T., Liou, J., Khoo, I.C., Huang, T.J.: ‘A frequency-addressed plasmonic switch based on dual-frequency liquid crystals’, Appl. Phys. Lett., 2010, 97, p. 091101 (doi: 10.1063/1.3483156).
29. 29)
  - 18. Krasnok, A.E., Simovski, C.R., Belov, P.A., Kivshar, Y.S.: ‘Superdirective dielectric nanoantennas’, Nanoscale, 2014, 6, pp. 7354–7361 (doi: 10.1039/c4nr01231c).
30. 30)
  - 34. Wang, Y., Abb, M., Boden, S.A., Aizpurua, J., de Groot, C.H., Muskens, O.L.: ‘Ultrafast nonlinear control of progressively loaded, single plasmonic nanoantennas fabricated using helium ion milling’, Nano Lett., 2013, 13, (11), pp. 5647–5653 (doi: 10.1021/nl403316z).
31. 31)
  - 27. Koh, A.L., Tomanec, O., Urbánek, M., Šikola, T., Maier, S.A., McComb, D.W.: ‘HRTEM and EELS of nanoantenna structures fabricated using focused ion beam techniques’, J. Phys., Conf. Ser., 2010, 241, p. 012041 (doi: 10.1088/1742-6596/241/1/012041).
32. 32)
  - 13. Oulton, R.F., Sorger, V.J., Zentgraf, T., et al: ‘Plasmon lasers at deep sub wavelength scale’, Nature, 2009, 461, (7264), pp. 629–632 (doi: 10.1038/nature08364).
33. 33)
  - 7. Li, J., Pendry, J.B.: ‘Hiding under the carpet: a new strategy for cloaking’, Phys. Rev. Lett., 2008, 101, p. 23901.
34. 34)
  - 30. Kollmann, H., Piao, X., Esmann, M., et al: ‘Toward plasmonics with nanometer precision: nonlinear optics of helium-ion milled gold nanoantennas’, Nano Lett., 2014, 14, pp. 4778–4784 (doi: 10.1021/nl5019589).

Functional plasmonic nanoantennae as optical filters

References

Related content