Core-shell Yagi-Uda nanoantenna for highly efficient and directive emission

Abstract

We study radiation from hybrid Yagi-Uda nanoantennas composed of metal-dielectric core-shell nanoparticles. We show that due to the presence of two types of resonances in each particle at close frequencies the hybrid Yagi-Uda nanoantenna can operate in two different regimes. In the first regime at low frequencies it operates similarly to plasmonic and all-dielectric Yagi-Uda nanoantennas, and it is characterized with highly directive emission in a forward direction. In the second regime at higher frequencies the hybrid nanoantenna can emit with a high directivity in backward direction due to the presence of the hybrid dispersion branch with negative group velocity. Moreover by choosing the appropriate nanoantenna parameters one can achieve the operation regime when due to excitation of dark magnetic dipole modes in nanoantenna high values of directivity and Purcell factor are realized simultaneouslly in extremely narrow frequency range.