Heaven’s Light is Our Guide

Plasmonics and Optical Devices

EEE 6613

Optical Devices

Course materials: Corresponding sources are given inside the slides

 Initial Understanding of Meta-materials
A metamaterial (from the Greek word meta, meaning "beyond" or "after", and
the Latin word materia, meaning "matter" or "material") is any material engineered to have
a property that is not found in naturally occurring materials.

➢ They are made from assemblies of multiple elements fashioned from composite materials
such as metals and plastics.

➢ These materials are usually arranged in repeating patterns, at scales that are smaller than
the wavelengths of the phenomena they influence.

➢ Metamaterials derive their properties not from the properties of the base materials, but
from their newly designed structures.

➢ Their precise shape, geometry, size, orientation and arrangement gives them their smart
properties capable of manipulating electromagnetic waves: by blocking, absorbing,
enhancing, or bending waves, to achieve benefits that go beyond what is possible with
conventional materials.
Applications:
Antennas
Absorber
Superlens
Cloaking devices
RCS (Radar Cross Section) reducing metamaterials
Seismic protection
Sound filtering
Guided mode manipulations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamaterial
 Plasmonic Meta-materials
A plasmonic metamaterial is a metamaterial that uses surface plasmons to achieve optical
properties not seen in nature where plasmons are produced from the interaction of light
with metal-dielectric materials.

Under specific conditions, the incident light couples with the surface plasmons to create
self-sustaining, propagating electromagnetic waves known as surface plasmon
polaritons (SPPs). Compared with the incident light, the SPPs can be much shorter in
wavelength.

The properties stem from the unique structure of the metal-dielectric composites, with
features smaller than the wavelength of light separated by subwavelength distances.

Light hitting such a metamaterial is transformed into surface plasmon polaritons, which are
shorter in wavelength than the incident light

Microscopy
Biological and chemical sensing
Optical computing
Photovoltaics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasmonic_metamaterial
 Plasmonic Meta-materials
Metamaterial Absorber

Source: Highly flexible wide angle of incidence terahertz metamaterial absorber: Design, fabrication, and characterization
Plasmonic optical Devices
Plasmonic Metamaterial Absorber

Source: High performance optical absorber based on a

plasmonic metamaterial
 Optical-antennas
❑ Antennas are usually referred to transducers which can convert electrical power into
propagating electromagnetic waves and vice versa
❖ Owing to the fundamental importance of this functionality, their use at microwave and
radio frequencies (RF) is applied in several devices
❑ On a different context, recent developments in nanoscale optical systems have generated
a major interest in the optical counterpart of the well-established RF/microwave antennas,
the so called plasmonic nano-antennas.
✓ The design of these metallic nanoantennas is different from the well-established
RF/microwave antennas in two important aspects.
✓ First, the assumption of metals behaving as perfect electrical conductors (PEC), which is
usually followed in microwave frequencies, is no longer valid at optical frequencies. The
electric fields can penetrate inside metals at this high frequency regime and the Ohmic
losses are substantially higher compared to microwave frequencies.
✓ Second, metallic and dielectric interfaces can sustain surface plasmon polaritons (SPP)
waves in the visible confined at nanoscale regions.

✓ Therefore, the response of the aforementioned optical plasmonic nanoantenna structures

is drastically different compared to their microwave counterparts.
✓ The most notable example among these differences is the strong field confinement
obtained at the subwavelength nanogap region of metallic nanoantennas.
✓ This nanogap region can be used as feeding or receiving point of the nanoantenna system
 Nano-antennas
In a summary, Nanoantennas mimic radio frequency antennas but are signicantly smaller than
conventional radio antennas and generally operate at optical frequencies.
➢ They are in-fact a metal dielectric nano-structure that can convert free-propagating optical
radiation into localised energy, generating strongly coupled plasmas at optical frequencies.

Modern fabrication techniques such as focused ion beam (FIB), electron beam lithography
(EBL) can be used to fabricate them.
Different types of nano-antennas: a
dipole antenna is one simple example
of nano-antenna, with a sub-
wavelength air gap between two
metallic regions which can enhance
the electric eld by more than 100
times.

Recently, a multilayer dipole

nanoantenna was proposed by
Khaleque and colleagues, which can
improve the field enhancement by two
times compared to single layer dipole
antenna.
 Nano-antennas
➢ The generation of highly intense localized electric fields at the nano-scale has
improved the imaging of living cells, allowed the manipulation of nano-
particles and boosted the detection of substances by, for example, improving
the sensitivity of SERS detectors.
➢ In addition to dipole, other nano-antennas have also been demonstrated such as
Yagi-uda, bow-tie, spiral and honeycomb like antennas.
➢ These structures combine metallic regions with different geometries and
provide better characteristics than a dipole antenna, such as an improved
directionality and larger bandwidth.
➢ The non-directionality of a dipole antenna can be over-comed by using Yagi-
uda nanoantennas: light is coupled to an element called feed and its
directionality is achieved by parasitic elements.
These antennas can make the emission of light from molecules, quantum dots and
other localised emitters more directional.
For example, Maksymov and colleagues have demonstrated an actively tunable
bistable Yagi-Uda nano-antenna that exhibits a broadband unidirectional emission
and a bistable response in a preferential direction of the far-eld zone. Evgeny and
co-workers have used a Yagi-Uda array to enhance the weak optical signal.
 Plasmonic Based Optical-antennas

Source: Plasmonic Laser Antennas and Related Devices

 Plasmonic Based Optical-antennas

Source: Plasmonic Laser Antennas and Related Devices

 Nano-antennas

(a) Multilayered dipole nano-antenna. (b) Transversal view of the antenna.

Source: Thick multilayered (silica/gold) dipole nano-antenna

Nano-antennas

F average for G 0.25 (solid curve), G =0.5 (s

with square markers), and G =0.75 (sol
 Optical Modulators
❖ Modulation is a process through which audio, video, image or text information
is added to an electrical or optical carrier signal to be transmitted over a
telecommunication or electronic medium[1].

❖ An optical modulator is a tool that can be used to change a characteristic of

light, most frequently an optical beam, such as a laser beam.

▪ An electro-absorption (EA) modulator modulates the intensity of laser via electric charge.

▪ Electro absorption modulator can be designed with plasmonic materials because refractive index of
plasmonic materials change when potential is applied.

[1] "Modulation," 9 April 2013. [Online]. Available: https://www.techopedia.com/definition/8409/modulation.

[Accessed 5 November 2022].
EA Optical Modulators
 EA Optical Modulators

Source: Enhanced Performance of ITO-Assisted Electro-Absorption Optical Modulator

Using Sidewall Angled Silicon Waveguide
Plasmonic Application in Photovoltaic Devices
 Plasmonic Application in Photovoltaic Devices
❖ Organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells are the third generation of solar cell technology.
❖ Organic cells are very strong absorbents of light, being able to harness larger amounts of
sunlight than other solar cells.
❖ The future of solar technology is organic power.
Even when traditional solar technologies meet their match, organic power continues to offer
nearly limitless possibilities thanks to its extraordinary properties.

The difference between organic

and inorganic solar cells is that
organic ones contain organic
semiconductor materials
(semiconducting materials with
carbon and hydrogen being their
basic constituents, polymers for
example) whereas inorganic
solar cells are based on
inorgranic semiconductors such
as Si, Ga, Ti. ..
 Plasmonic Application in Photovoltaic Devices
Plasmonic Solar Cells
A plasmonic-enhanced solar cell, commonly referred to simply as plasmonic solar
cell, is a type of solar cell (including thin-film, crystalline silicon, amorphous
silicon, and other types of cells) that converts light into electricity with the
assistance of plasmons, but where the photovoltaic effect occurs in another
material.

A direct plasmonic solar cell is a solar cell that converts

light into electricity using plasmons as the active,
photovoltaic material.

o The thickness varies from that of traditional silicon

PV, to less than 2 μm thick and theoretically could be
as thin as 100 nm.

o They can use substrates which are cheaper than silicon, such as glass, plastic or steel.

o One of the challenges for thin film solar cells is that they do not absorb as much light as
thicker solar cells made with materials with the same absorption coefficient.

o Hence, methods for light trapping are important for thin film solar cells.
 Plasmonic Application in Photovoltaic Devices
Plasmonic Solar Cells
✓ Plasmonic-enhanced cells improve absorption by scattering light using metal nano-
particles excited at their surface plasmon resonance.

✓ Plasmonic core-shell nanoparticles located in the front of the thin film solar cells can aid
weak absorption of Si solar cells in the near-infrared region—the fraction of light scattered
into the substrate.

✓ Incoming light at the plasmon resonance frequency induces electron oscillations at the
surface of the nanoparticles.

✓ The oscillation electrons can then be captured by a conductive layer producing an electrical
current.

✓ The voltage produced is dependent on the bandgap of the conductive layer and the
potential of the electrolyte in contact with the nanoparticles.

✓ There is still considerable research necessary to enable the technology to reach its full
potential and commercialization of plasmonic-enhanced solar cells

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasmonic_solar_cell
 Photovoltaic Devices: Plasmonic Solar Cells
Design

The design for plasmonic-enhanced solar cells

varies depending on the method being used to
trap and scatter light across the surface and
through the material.

Method 1 : PSC using metal nano-particles

➢ A common design is to deposit metal nano-particles on the top surface of the solar cell.

➢ When light hits these metal nano-particles at their surface plasmon resonance, the light is
scattered in many different directions.

➢ This allows light to travel along the solar cell and bounce between the substrate and the
nano-particles enabling the solar cell to absorb more light.

➢ The concentrated near field intensity induced by localized surface plasmon of the metal
nanoparticles will promote the optical absorption of semiconductors.
 Photovoltaic Devices: Plasmonic Solar Cells
Method 2 : Metal film cells

➢ One other type of structure is to have a thin film of silicon and a thin layer of
metal deposited on the lower surface.
➢ The light will travel through the silicon and generate surface plasmons on the
interface of the silicon and metal.
➢ This generates electric fields inside of the silicon since electric fields do not
travel very far into metals.
➢ If the electric field is strong enough, electrons can be moved and collected to
produce a photocurrent.

❖ The thin film of metal in this design must have nanometer sized grooves which
act as waveguides for the incoming light in order to excite as many photons in
the silicon thin film as possible.
 Photovoltaic Devices: Plasmonic Solar Cells
Applications
There are many applications for plasmonic-enhanced solar cells. The need for cheaper and more efficient
solar cells is considerable. In order for solar cells to be considered cost-effective, they need to provide
energy for a smaller price than that of traditional power sources such as coal and gasoline.
❑ The movement toward a more green world has helped to spark research in the area of plasmonic-
enhanced solar cells.
❑ Currently, the existing solar cells cannot exceed efficiencies of about 30% (first generation).

❑ With new technologies (third generation), efficiencies of up to 40-60% can be expected.

1. Certain applications for plasmonic-enhanced solar cells would be for space exploration vehicles. A
main contribution for this would be the reduced weight of the solar cells. An external fuel source would
also not be needed if enough power could be generated from the solar cells. This would drastically help to
reduce the weight as well.

2. Solar cells have a great potential to help rural electrification. An estimated two million villages near the
equator have limited access to electricity and fossil fuels, and approximately 25% of people in the world
do not have access to electricity.

3. When the cost of extending power grids, running rural electricity and using diesel generators is
compared with the cost of solar cells, in many cases the solar cells are superior. If the efficiency and cost
of the current solar cell technology is decreased even further, then many rural communities and villages
around the world could obtain electricity when current methods are out of the question.
 Photovoltaic Devices: Plasmonic Solar Cells
4. Specific applications for rural communities would be water pumping systems,
residential electric supply and street lights.
5. A particularly interesting application would be for health systems in countries where
motorized vehicles are not overly abundant.
6. Solar cells could be used to provide the power to refrigerate medications in coolers
during transport.
7. Solar cells could also provide power to lighthouses, buoys, or even battleships out in
the ocean.
8. Industrial companies could use them to power telecommunications systems or
monitoring and control systems along pipelines.
9. If the solar cells could be produced on a large scale and be cost effective, then
entire power stations could be built in order to provide power to the electrical grids. With
a reduction in size, they could be implemented on both commercial and residential
buildings with a much smaller footprint.
10. Other applications are in hybrid systems. The solar cells could help to power high-
consumption devices such as automobiles in order to reduce the amount of fossil fuels
used.
11. In consumer electronics devices, solar cells could be used to replace batteries for low-
power electronics. This would save money and it would also reduce the amount of waste
going into landfills.
 Photovoltaic Devices: Plasmonic Solar Cells
Source: Plasmonic solar cells
Basic mechanisms:
Two main basic mechanisms have been proposed to explain photocurrent enhancement by metal particles
incorporated into or on solar cells:
1. light scattering and near-field concentration of light.
2. The contribution of each mechanism depends mostly on the particle size, how strongly the
semiconductor absorbs and the electrical design of the solar cell.

•Source: Incident angle dependence of absorption enhancement in plasmonic solar cells

amorphous silicon (a-Si): the

non-crystalline form of silicon
used for solar cells and thin-film
transistors in LCDs
 Photovoltaic Devices: Plasmonic Solar Cells

Fig. 3. (a) (b) Absorption (W/m) in a 100 nm (a) or 150 nm (b) thick bare a-Si substrate or a-Si substrate coated with an 80 nm silver
film under a normally incident TM plane wave and the corresponding absorption enhancement. Black curve: absorption in the bare a-
Si substrate. Red curve: absorption in the a-Si substrate coated with an 80 nm silver film. Blue curve: absorption enhancement by
adding the silver film. (c) (d) Absorption enhancement in a 100 nm (c) or 150 nm (d) thick a-Si substrate with a single on-top
 Photovoltaic Devices: Plasmonic Solar Cells
Source: Solid-State Plasmonic Solar Cells
 Optical Photodetectors
Plasmonic photodetectors naturally include metallic elements.
The role of such elements can be of two kinds:
(1) Metals can constitute the absorber in hot-carrier devices;
(2) Metals can provide enhancement of electromagnetic field inside an absorber.

Fig. 1 shows a
simplified
classification
graph of
plasmonic
photodetectors.

Source: Plasmonic Photodetectors

 Optical Photodetectors
Localized Plasmonic Field Enhancement Photodetectors

Source: Plasmonic Photodetectors

 Optical Photodetectors
Plasmonically Enhanced Waveguide Photodetectors

Plasmonically Enhanced Grating Photodetectors

Source: Plasmonic Photodetectors

 Plasmonics based Optical Sensors
Source: Photonic crystal
fiber based plasmonic
sensors
 Plasmonics based Optical Sensors
Source: Photonic
crystal fiber based
plasmonic sensors

Fig. 2. Fiber optic based SPR sensors. (a) (i) Smartphone-based imaging sensor, (ii) time response with varying RI 1.328-1.351 and (iii) linear fitting of Relative
intensity vsrefractive index. (b) Smart-phone based SPR sensor for pregnancy test. (c) DNA hybridization and DNA–protein interaction measurement, and (d)
LSPR for measuring theconcentration of nanoparticles.
Plasmonics based Optical Sensors
 Plasmonics based Optical Sensors: Detailed Example
Source: Twin Core Photonic Crystal Fiber Plasmonic Refractive Index Sensor
Plasmonics based Optical Sensors: Detailed Example
Plasmonics based Optical Sensors: Detailed Example
Fiber Based Plasmonic Devices : Plasmonic Polarizer / Polarization Filter-1 Source: Gold-coated photonic crystal fiber based polarization filter for dual
communication windows
Fiber Based Plasmonic Devices : Plasmonic Polarizer / Polarization Filter-2 Source: High Extinction Ratio and Large Bandwidth PCF Polarization Filter With Gold-Wires
Coated by Monocrystalline Sil
 Fiber Based Plasmonic Devices: Polarization Splitter
A device that can split two orthogonal polarized incident light to the two
separate cores at a certain distance of an optical fiber or vice-versa.

Source: Ultra-short polarization splitter based on a plasmonic dual-core photonic crystal fiber with an
ultra-broad bandwidth
Fiber Based Plasmonic Devices: Polarization Splitter
Source: Ultra-short polarization splitter
based on a plasmonic dual-core photonic
crystal fiber with an ultra-broad bandwidth
Fiber Based Plasmonic Devices: Polarization Splitter

Source: Ultra-short polarization splitter based on a plasmonic dual-core photonic crystal fiber with an
ultra-broad bandwidth
 Assignment 3:
❖ Q. 1. Write short note on ‘Metamaterial’ and ‘Plasmonic metamaterial’. List the
applications of them.
❖ Q. 2. What is Metamaterial absorber? Briefly discuss a Metamaterial absorber structure
with necessary absorption output.
❖ Q. 3. What do you mean by Nanoantenna ? Classify nanoantenna. Briefly explain a
nanoantenna structure with necessary field enhancement curve. How RF antenna differs
from the plasmonic nano-antenna?
❖ Q. 4. Define and classify optical modulator? Draw and explain an optical modulator on
the basis of performance parameters.
❖ Q. 5. What is photovoltaics? What are the differences between organic and plasmonic
solar cells?
❖ Q. 6. Briefly explain the mechanism behind the plasmonic solar cells. List the
applications of plasmonic solar cells.
❖ Q. 7. Draw and explain a plasmonic solar cell with necessary diagrams and output curves.
❖ Q. 8. Draw and explain a plasmonic based optical sensor with necessary performance
parameters curve.
❖ Q. 9. Draw and explain a plasmonic polarization filter with necessary performance
parameters curve.
❖ Q. 10. Draw and explain a plasmonic polarization splitter with necessary performance
parameters curve.
❖ Q. 11. How a plasmonic enhanced Photodetector works? Briefly discuss with examples.
Next are Optional Slides for more
understanding or more knowledge
 Plasmonics : A Route to Nanoscale Optical Devices [***]
The further integration of optical devices will require the fabrication of waveguides for
electromagnetic energy below the diffraction limit of light.
➢ In recent years, there has been tremendous progress in the miniaturization of optical
devices. Planar waveguides and photonic crystals are currently key technologies enabling
a revolution in integrated optical components.
➢ The size and density of optical devices employing these technologies is nonetheless
limited by the diffraction limit of light, which imposes a lower size limit on the guided
light mode of about λ/2n (a few 100 nm).
➢ Another limitation is the typical guiding geometry.

Understanding Diffraction Limit:

This meant that a microscope could not resolve two objects located closer than λ/2NA. In
short, the diffraction limit of light does not allow the microscope to differentiate between two
objects divided by a lateral distance that is less than half of the wavelength of the light used to
image the sample.
The diffraction limit describes the smallest feature size that an optical imaging system can
resolve. The diffraction limit is driven by the physics of light; it is NOT based on
manufacturing limitations we encounter when building microscopes or telescopes.
*** Maier, Stefan A., et al. "Plasmonics—a route to nanoscale optical devices." Advanced
materials 13.19 (2001): 1501-1505.
 Plasmonics : A Route to Nanoscale Optical Devices
The Key Ingredients of Nanoparticle Waveguides: Plasmon Resonance and Near Field
Coupling
 Photonic Nano-jet
Amongst various applications of plasmonics, photonic nano-jet is one of them: its
existence, properties, and potential applications of the photonic nanojet are well
known in the optics/photonics research community
a nano-jet is a narrow, high-intensity electromagnetic beam that emerges from a micro-
object when it is illuminated by a plane wave [75]. A typical view of nano-jets is shown in
Figure 2.6.
✓ it is a non-evanescent propagating beam it can
maintain a subwavelength full-width at half-maximum
(FWHM) transverse beam width.
✓ the beam width can extend more than 2λ beyond the
dielectric cylinder or sphere.
✓ the minimum FWHM beamwidth can be smaller than
the classical diffraction limit ( λ/3 for microspheres).
✓ it is extremely high intensity beam compared to the
illuminating wave.
✓ when the relative refractive index contrast with
background medium is less than about 2:1, these non-
resonant phenomenon can propagate from 2 to more
than 40λ.
Photonic Nano-jet
Photonic Nanojet
 Optical Couplers

Broadband high-efficiency surface-plasmon-polariton coupler with siliconmetal

interface
 Plasmonic Meta-materials
Negative refractive index

Negative index of refraction derives mathematically from the vector triplet E, H and k.
For plane waves propagating in electromagnetic metamaterials, the electric field, magnetic field
and wave vector follow a left-hand rule, the reverse of the behavior of conventional optical materials.
To date, only metamaterials exhibit a negative index of refraction.
Plasmonic Meta-materials
 Photovoltaic Effects occur in Solar cell
The photovoltaic
effect is a process that
generates voltage or
electric current in
a photovoltaic cell when it is
exposed to sunlight. It is this
effect that makes solar
panels useful, as it is how
the cells within the panel
convert sunlight to electrical
energy.

https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Photovoltaic_effect
 Photovoltaic Devices: Plasmonic Solar Cells
Source: Broadband absorption enhancement in plasmonic thin-film solar cells with grating surface

amorphous silicon (a-

Si): the non-
crystalline form of
silicon used for solar
cells and thin-film
transistors in LCDs

TAE = Total absorption

efficiency not solar
efficiency
 Photovoltaic Devices: Plasmonic Solar Cells

Source: Efficiency Enhancement of Perovskite Solar

Cells with Plasmonic Nanoparticles: A Simulation
Study
Fiber Based Plasmonic Devices
Polarization Filter / Polarizer
Fiber Based Plasmonic Devices
High Extinction Ratio and L
Polarization Filter / PolarizerPolarization Filter With Gold
Monocrystalline Silicon