Nonlinear photon-assisted tunneling transport in optical gap antennas

Arnaud Stolz (1) , Johann Berthelot (1) , Mennemanteuil Marie-Maxime (1) , Gérard Colas Des Francs (1) , Laurent Markey (1) , Meunier Vincent (2) , Alexandre Bouhelier (1)

1 ICB - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne
2 RPI - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

We introduce strongly coupled optical gap antennas to interface optical radiation with current-carrying electrons at the nanoscale. The transducer relies on the nonlinear optical and electrical properties of an optical gap antenna operating in the tunneling regime. We discuss the underlying physical mechanisms controlling the conversion involving d-band electrons and demonstrate that a simple two-wire optical antenna can provide advanced optoelectronic functionalities beyond tailoring the electromagnetic response of a single emitter. Interfacing an electronic command layer with a nanoscale optical device may thus be facilitated by the optical rectennas discussed here.

Mots clés: Plasmonics; photon-assisted tunneling; optical rectennas; electromigration

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Arnaud Stolz, Johann Berthelot, Mennemanteuil Marie-Maxime, Gérard Colas Des Francs, Laurent Markey, et al.. Nonlinear photon-assisted tunneling transport in optical gap antennas. Nano Letters, 2014, 14 (5), pp.2330-2338. ⟨10.1021/nl404707t⟩. ⟨hal-01264122⟩