May 2018
Spotlight Summary by Francesco Morichetti
All-silicon-based nano-antennas for wavelength and polarization demultiplexing
Antennas can radiate and detect electromagnetic waves along well-defined directions. This is something everyone probably knows very well. Yet, far beyond this common perception, there is much more we can do with an antenna. Let’s consider a nano-antenna working on optical beams. If we look at the electromagnetic field inside it, we would discover that a nano-antenna typically behaves as a resonant multimode interferometric device. Resonant modes are the degrees of freedom we can exploit. If we are able to excite as many electric and magnetic resonances as possible, and let them interfere in a controllable way, we can really play new games. Not just reaching ultra-high directivity, but never-before-conceptualized functionalities could be implemented.
Indeed, this is what M. Panmai and coworkers succeeded to demonstrate. They designed an all-silicon-based nano-antenna that can work as a wavelength and polarization demultiplexer. The key of their achievement is in the asymmetric structure of the nano-antenna, which induces electric and magnetic dipole and quadrupole modes. The interference among these modes is utilized to shape the field radiated by the nano-antenna. As the interference is strongly dependent on the wavelength and polarization of the incident light, the proposed structure can be efficiently used to realize wavelength and polarization demultiplexing. Noteworthily, the fabrication of this device is fully compatible with standard fabrication technology of silicon chips.
We can expect that these new multiplexing functionalities can boost the exploitation of nano-antennas in all the areas where they are commonly employed, such as high-efficiency light detectors, imaging, sensors, solar cells, and optical processing.
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Indeed, this is what M. Panmai and coworkers succeeded to demonstrate. They designed an all-silicon-based nano-antenna that can work as a wavelength and polarization demultiplexer. The key of their achievement is in the asymmetric structure of the nano-antenna, which induces electric and magnetic dipole and quadrupole modes. The interference among these modes is utilized to shape the field radiated by the nano-antenna. As the interference is strongly dependent on the wavelength and polarization of the incident light, the proposed structure can be efficiently used to realize wavelength and polarization demultiplexing. Noteworthily, the fabrication of this device is fully compatible with standard fabrication technology of silicon chips.
We can expect that these new multiplexing functionalities can boost the exploitation of nano-antennas in all the areas where they are commonly employed, such as high-efficiency light detectors, imaging, sensors, solar cells, and optical processing.
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Article Information
All-silicon-based nano-antennas for wavelength and polarization demultiplexing
Mingcheng Panmai, Jin Xiang, Zhibo Sun, Yuanyuan Peng, Hongfeng Liu, Haiying Liu, Qiaofeng Dai, Shaolong Tie, and Sheng Lan
Opt. Express 26(10) 12344-12362 (2018) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF