Strong enhancement of forbidden atomic transitions using plasmonic nanostructures

Abstract

We investigate the mediation of symmetry-forbidden atomic transitions using plasmonic nanostructures. We show that the excitation of the electric dipole-forbidden, quadrupole-allowed $6{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{2}{S}_{1/2}\ensuremath{-}5{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{2}{D}_{5/2}$ transition in cesium may be enhanced by more than 6 orders of magnitude in the intense, inhomogeneous near field of a plasmonic nanoantenna. Using optical reciprocity, the enhancement can be understood to apply to spontaneous emission as well, allowing the fast and efficient optical detection of excited atoms.