Controlling light scattering and emission at subwavelength scale with plasmonic nanopatch antennas (Presentation Recording)

Abstract

Controlling light scattering and emission at subwavelength scale has significant implications for solar energy conversion, sensing, and nanophotonic devices. Plasmonic nanopatch antennas (PNAs), which consist of plasmonic nanoparticle coupled with metallic films, have shown directionality of radiation and large emission rate enhancement due to the strong plasmonic waveguide modes within the spacer layer. Herein, we comparatively study the light scattering and emission behaviors of a series of plasmonic nanopatch antennas (PNAs) with different plasmonic nanoparticles (i.e., nanosquare, nanotriangle, nanorod, and nanodisk) to develop the design rules of the PNAs. Using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations, we show that the shape and size of plasmonic nanoparticles can be tuned to control the resonance peak, intensity, directionality, and spatial distribution of the scattering light as well as the directionality, spatial distribution, spontaneous emission rate, quantum efficiency, and radiation enhancement factor of light emission. For example, high radiative quantum efficiency (0.74) and radiation enhancement factor (>20) can be achieved by disk PNA, while triangle PNA shows remarkable spontaneous emission rate enhancement of over 2,500. The effects of locations of emitters relative to the PNAs on the emission properties are also examined. Our results pave the way towards the rational design of PNAs for the optimal light scattering and emission as required by targeted applications.