Plasmonic slot waveguides: a quantum leap in nonlinear nanophotonics
Interest and excitement in nanophotonics—the study and control of light-matter interactions at the nanoscale—are driven by the ability to confine light to volumes well below a cubic wavelength, and, thereby, achieve extremely high intensities. This leads to light-matter interactions of unprecedented...
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2025-02-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Nanotechnology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnano.2025.1536462/full |
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| author | Libertad Rojas Yanez Huatian Hu Cristian Ciracì Stefano Palomba |
| author_facet | Libertad Rojas Yanez Huatian Hu Cristian Ciracì Stefano Palomba |
| author_sort | Libertad Rojas Yanez |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Interest and excitement in nanophotonics—the study and control of light-matter interactions at the nanoscale—are driven by the ability to confine light to volumes well below a cubic wavelength, and, thereby, achieve extremely high intensities. This leads to light-matter interactions of unprecedented localization and strength. Such extreme behavior—both in terms of field enhancement and localization—can be achieved using plasmonic nanostructures, which concentrate light in regions much smaller than the wavelength of light, reducing the excitation power and, under certain conditions, removing phase-matching requirements in the nonlinear regime. In this study, we theoretically show that metal–dielectric–metal (MDM) slot waveguides (WGs), consisting of a thin dielectric layer sandwiched between metal films, provide the strongest confinement. We also demonstrate that integrating epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials within the MDM slot significantly improves the nonlinear conversion efficiency of these structures. The results show that the degenerate four-wave mixing conversion efficiency of these ENZ-MDM structures surpasses that of regular plasmonic structures and their dielectric counterparts, even under low pump power conditions, and remains robust despite higher losses in the ENZ material. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-a2b2b4e6a6b5466d9f2e98b8c37d6bcb |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2673-3013 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-02-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Nanotechnology |
| spelling | doaj-art-a2b2b4e6a6b5466d9f2e98b8c37d6bcb2025-08-20T03:11:22ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Nanotechnology2673-30132025-02-01710.3389/fnano.2025.15364621536462Plasmonic slot waveguides: a quantum leap in nonlinear nanophotonicsLibertad Rojas Yanez0Huatian Hu1Cristian Ciracì2Stefano Palomba3Institute for Photonics and Optical Sciences, School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaIstituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Center for Biomolecular Nanotechnologies, Lecce, ItalyIstituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Center for Biomolecular Nanotechnologies, Lecce, ItalyInstitute for Photonics and Optical Sciences, School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaInterest and excitement in nanophotonics—the study and control of light-matter interactions at the nanoscale—are driven by the ability to confine light to volumes well below a cubic wavelength, and, thereby, achieve extremely high intensities. This leads to light-matter interactions of unprecedented localization and strength. Such extreme behavior—both in terms of field enhancement and localization—can be achieved using plasmonic nanostructures, which concentrate light in regions much smaller than the wavelength of light, reducing the excitation power and, under certain conditions, removing phase-matching requirements in the nonlinear regime. In this study, we theoretically show that metal–dielectric–metal (MDM) slot waveguides (WGs), consisting of a thin dielectric layer sandwiched between metal films, provide the strongest confinement. We also demonstrate that integrating epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials within the MDM slot significantly improves the nonlinear conversion efficiency of these structures. The results show that the degenerate four-wave mixing conversion efficiency of these ENZ-MDM structures surpasses that of regular plasmonic structures and their dielectric counterparts, even under low pump power conditions, and remains robust despite higher losses in the ENZ material.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnano.2025.1536462/fullmetal–dielectric–metal slot waveguidenonlinear plasmonicsepsilon-near-zero materialsnanophotonicsfour-wave mixing |
| spellingShingle | Libertad Rojas Yanez Huatian Hu Cristian Ciracì Stefano Palomba Plasmonic slot waveguides: a quantum leap in nonlinear nanophotonics Frontiers in Nanotechnology metal–dielectric–metal slot waveguide nonlinear plasmonics epsilon-near-zero materials nanophotonics four-wave mixing |
| title | Plasmonic slot waveguides: a quantum leap in nonlinear nanophotonics |
| title_full | Plasmonic slot waveguides: a quantum leap in nonlinear nanophotonics |
| title_fullStr | Plasmonic slot waveguides: a quantum leap in nonlinear nanophotonics |
| title_full_unstemmed | Plasmonic slot waveguides: a quantum leap in nonlinear nanophotonics |
| title_short | Plasmonic slot waveguides: a quantum leap in nonlinear nanophotonics |
| title_sort | plasmonic slot waveguides a quantum leap in nonlinear nanophotonics |
| topic | metal–dielectric–metal slot waveguide nonlinear plasmonics epsilon-near-zero materials nanophotonics four-wave mixing |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnano.2025.1536462/full |
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