@phdthesis{Razinskas2018,
  author    = {Razinskas, Gary},
  title     = {Functional plasmonic nanocircuitry},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-166917},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {In this work, functional plasmonic nanocircuitry is examined as a key of revolutionizing state-of-the-art electronic and photonic circuitry in terms of integration density and transmission bandwidth. In this context, numerical simulations enable the design of dedicated devices, which allow fundamental control of photon flow at the nanometer scale via single or multiple plasmonic eigenmodes. The deterministic synthesis and in situ analysis of these eigenmodes is demonstrated and constitutes an indispensable requirement for the practical use of any device. By exploiting the existence of multiple eigenmodes and coherence - both not accessible in classical electronics - a nanoscale directional coupler for the ultrafast spatial and spatiotemporal coherent control of plasmon propagation is conceived. Future widespread application of plasmonic nanocircuitry in quantum technologies is boosted by the promising demonstrations of spin-optical and quantum plasmonic nanocircuitry.},
  subject      = {Nanooptik},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Kern2014,
  author    = {Kern, Johannes},
  title     = {Optical and electrical excitation of nanoantennas with atomic-scale gaps},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-115492},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {Nano-antennas are an emerging concept for the manipulation and control of optical fields at the sub-wavelength scale. In analogy to their radio- and micro-wave counterparts they provide an efficient link between propagating and localized fields. Antennas operating at optical frequencies are typically on the order of a few hundred nanometer in size and are fabricated from noble metals. Upon excitation with an external field the electron gas inside the antenna can respond resonantly, if the dimensions of the antenna are chosen appropriate. Consequently, the resonance wavelength depends on the antenna dimensions. The electron-density oscillation is a hybrid state of electron and photon and is called a localized plasmon resonance. The oscillating currents within the antenna constitute a source for enhanced optical near-fields, which are strongly localized at the metal surface. A particular interesting type of antennas are pairs of metal particles separated by a small insulating gap. For anti-symmetric gap modes charges of opposite sign reside across the gap. The dominating field-components are normal to the metal surface and due to the boundary conditions they are sizable only inside the gap. The attractive Coulomb interaction increases the surface-charge accumulation at the gap and enhanced optical fields occur within the insulating gap. The Coulomb interaction increases with decreasing gap size and extreme localization and strongest intensity enhancement is expected for small gap sizes. In this thesis optical antennas with extremely small gaps, just slightly larger than inter-atomic distances, are investigated by means of optical and electrical excitation. In the case of electrical excitation electron tunneling across the antenna gap is exploited. At the beginning of this thesis little was known about the optical properties of antennas with atomic scale gaps. Standard measurement techniques of field confinement and enhancement involving well-separated source, sample and detector are not applicable at atomic length-scales due to the interaction of the respective elements. Here, an elegant approach has been found. It is based on the fact that for closely-spaced metallic particles the energy splitting of a hybridized mode pair, consisting of symmetric and anti-symmetric mode, provides a direct measure for the Coulomb interaction over the gap. Gap antennas therefore possess an internal ruler which sensitively reports the size of the gap. Upon self-assembly side-by-side aligned nanorods with gap sizes ranging from 2 to 0.5nm could be obtained. These antennas exhibit various symmetric and anti-symmetric modes in the visible range. In order to reveal optical modes of all symmetries a novel scattering setup has been developed and is successfully applied. Careful analysis of the optical spectra and comparison to numerical simulations suggests that extreme field confinement and localization can occur in gaps down to 0.5 nm. This is possibly the limit of plasmonic enhancement since for smaller gaps electron tunneling as well as non-locality of the dielectric function affect plasmonic resonances. The strongly confined and intense optical fields provided by atomic-scale gaps are ideally suited for enhanced light-matter interaction. The interplay of intense optical-frequency fields and static electric fields or currents is of great interest for opto-electronic applications. In this thesis a concept has been developed, which allows for the electrical connection of optical antennas. By means of numerical simulations the concept was first verified for antennas with gap sizes on the order of 25 nm. It could be shown, that by attaching the leads at positions of a field minimum the resonant properties are nearly undisturbed. The resonance wavelengths shift only by a small amount with respect to isolated antennas and the numerically calculated near-field intensity enhancement is about 1000, which is just slightly lower than for an unconnected antenna. The antennas are fabricated from single-crystalline gold and exhibit superior optical and electrical properties. In particular, the conductivity is a factor of 4 larger with respect to multi-crystalline material, the resistance of the gap is as large as 1 TOhm and electric fields of at least 10^8 V/m can be continuously applied without damage. Optical scattering spectra reveal well-pronounced and tunable antenna resonances, which demonstrates the concept of electrically-connected antennas also experimentally. By combining atomic-scale gaps and electrically-connected optical antennas a novel sub-wavelength photon source has been realized. To this end an antenna featuring an atomic scale gap is electrically driven by quantum tunneling across the antenna gap. The optical frequency components of this fluctuating current are efficiently converted to photons by the antenna. Consequently, light generation and control are integrated into a planar single-material nano-structure. Tunneling junctions are realized by positioning gold nanoparticles into the antenna gap, using an atomic force microscope. The presence of a stable tunneling junction between antenna and particle is demonstrated by measuring its distinct current-voltage characteristic. A DC voltage is applied to the junction and photons are generated by inelastically tunneling electrons via the enhanced local density of photonic states provided by the antenna resonance. The polarization of the emitted light is found to be along the antenna axis and the directivity is given by the dipolar antenna mode. By comparing electroluminescence and scattering spectra of different antennas, it has been shown that the spectrum of the generated light is determined by the geometry of the antenna. Moreover, the light generation process is enhanced by two orders of magnitude with respect to a non-resonant structure. The controlled fabrication of the presented single-crystalline structures has not only pushed the frontiers of nano-technology, but the extreme confinement and enhancement of optical fields as well as the light generation by tunneling electrons lays a groundwork for a variety of fundamental studies and applications. Field localization down to the (sub-)nanometer scale is a prerequisite for optical spectroscopy with near-atomic resolution. Indeed, recently first pioneering experiments have achieved molecular resolution exploiting plasmon-enhanced Raman scattering. The small modal volume of antennas with atomic-scale gaps can lead to light-matter interaction in the strong coupling regime. Quantum electro-dynamical effects such as Rabi splitting or oscillations are likely when a single emitter is placed into resonant structures with atomic-scale gaps. The concept of electrically-connected optical antennas is expected to be widely applied within the emerging field of electro-plasmonics. The sub-wavelength photon source developed during this thesis will likely gain attention for future plasmonic nanocircuits. It is envisioned that in such a circuit the optical signal provided by the source is processed at ultrafast speed and nanometer-scales on the chip and is finally converted back into an electronic signal. An integrated optical transistor could be realized by means of photon-assisted tunneling. Moreover, it would be interesting to investigate, if it is possible to imprint the fermionic nature of electrons onto photons in order to realize an electrically-driven source of single photons. Non-classical light sources with the potential for on-chip integration could be built from electrically-connected antennas and are of great interest for quantum communication. To this end single emitters could be placed in the antenna gap or single electron tunneling could be achieved by means of a single-channel quantum point contact or the Coulomb-blockade effect.},
  subject      = {Nanooptik},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Dantscher2006,
  author    = {Dantscher, Sandra},
  title     = {Photostromspektroskopie an Nanokontakten : Tunnel- und Einzelmolek{\"u}lkontakte unter Femtosekundenbeleuchtung},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-18094},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2006},
  abstract  = {In dieser Arbeit wurde der lichtinduzierte Ladungstransfer in Nanokontakten untersucht. Dabei wurden sowohl Tunnel- als auch Molek{\"u}lkontakte eingesetzt. Zur Pr{\"a}paration der Tunnelkontakte standen zwei verschiedene Methoden zur Verf{\"u}gung: mechanisch kontrollierte Bruchkontakte und elektromigrierte Nanokontakte. Die Bruchkontakttechnik bietet die M{\"o}glichkeit, den Abstand der Elektroden mit Sub-AA-Genauigkeit zu ver{\"a}ndern, w{\"a}hrend die elektromigrierten Kontakte einen durch die Pr{\"a}parationsbedingungen fest vorgegebenen Abstand haben. Bei den hier untersuchten Molek{\"u}len handelt es sich um Dithiole, die {\"u}ber eine Schwefel-Gold-Bindung an die Elektroden gebunden sind. Die Beleuchtung erfolgte im Fall der Bruchkontakte mit ultrakurzen Laserpulsen bei 800 nm und durch Frequenzverdopplung bei 400 nm. Durch Fokussierung auf einen Radius von ca. 100 mum wurden Spitzenintensit{\"a}ten von 10^7 Wcm^-2 (800 nm) bzw. 10^6 Wcm^-2 (400 nm) erreicht. Die Bruchkontakte (Tunnel- und Molek{\"u}lkontakte) waren bis zu den auftretenden Maximalintensit{\"a}ten von 10^7 Wcm^-2 stabil. F{\"u}r alle untersuchten Tunnelkontakte konnte eine lichtinduzierte Stromkomponente von bis zu 1 nA nachgewiesen werden. Sie ist proportional zum jeweils fließenden mittleren DC-Strom und betr{\"a}gt typischerweise einige Prozent davon. Dieser Strom wurde auf die thermische Ausdehnung der Elektroden auf Grund der dort durch Absorption deponierten Lichtenergie zur{\"u}ckgef{\"u}hrt. Aus der relativen Gr{\"o}ße des lichtinduzierten Signals und einem Wert der Austrittsarbeit von Gold von ca. 4,7 eV ergibt sich eine Expansion jeder Elektrode um etwa 1 pm. Dies ist in guter {\"U}berinstimmung mit einem einfachen thermischen Modell der freitragenden Elektroden. Bei einigen Kontakten wurde noch eine weitere lichtinduzierte Stromkomponente in der Gr{\"o}ßenordnung einiger pA gefunden, die nicht von der angelegten Biasspannung abh{\"a}ngt, aber linear mit der Laserleistung zunimmt. Ein Modell, das diese Befunde erkl{\"a}rt, geht von einer asymmetrischen Anregung in den beiden Elektroden aus. Somit ergibt sich ein Nettostrom angeregter Elektronen in eine Richtung. Die dazugeh{\"o}rige gemessene Quanteneffizienz liegt nahe bei 1, was ein Indiz auf einen Beitrag von sekund{\"a}ren heißen Elektronen zum Strom ist. Auch bei den Molek{\"u}lkontakten konnte eine lichtinduzierte Stromkomponente identifiziert werden, die linear von der Laserintensit{\"a}t abh{\"a}ngt. Sie wird, {\"a}hnlich wie im Fall der Tunnelkontakte, der thermisch verursachten Expansion der Elektroden zugeschrieben, allerdings ließ sich der genaue Prozess bisher noch nicht erkl{\"a}ren. Es ist anzunehmen, dass die Zunahme der Elektrodenl{\"a}nge durch eine Umordnung auf atomarer L{\"a}ngenskala in der vordersten Spitze der Goldelektrode kompensiert wird, da dies der duktilste Bereich des gesamten Kontakts ist. Der genaue Prozess konnte jedoch noch nicht gekl{\"a}rt werden. Messungen, die den Elektrodenabstand um einige AA ver{\"a}nderten, lieferten weitere Indizien f{\"u}r die Komplexit{\"a}t der Molek{\"u}lkontakte. So trat in manchen F{\"a}llen eine starke Korrelation zwischen Ver{\"a}nderungen des mittleren DC-Stroms und des lichtinduzierten Signals auf, was auf einen einzelnen Transportpfad f{\"u}r beide Signale hindeutet. Andererseits ver{\"a}nderten sich die beiden Str{\"o}me teilweise aber auch unabh{\"a}ngig voneinander, was nur durch mehrere parallele Transportkan{\"a}le im Kontakt erkl{\"a}rt werden kann. Zus{\"a}tzlich zum thermisch verursachten lichtinduzierten Signal wurden, wie im Fall der Tunnelkontakte, biasspannungsunabh{\"a}ngige Str{\"o}me identifiziert. Sie sind in der gleichen Gr{\"o}ßenordnung wie in Tunnelkontakten und werden somit der gleichen Ursache zugeschrieben, n{\"a}mlich einer asymmetrischen Anregung in den Metallelektroden, die zu einem Nettostrom in einer Richtung f{\"u}hrt. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit wurden elektromigrierte Tunnelkontakte untersucht. Da diese Kontakte einen sehr großen Elektrodenabstand in der Gr{\"o}ßenordnung von 30 nm aufwiesen, konnte nur bei Kombination von einer Biasspannung von mehreren Volt mit Femtosekundenbeleuchtung ein Strom im Bereich von 100 fA detektiert werden. Durch Verbesserung der Fokussierung im Vergleich zu den Experimenten an den Bruchkontakten wurden Spitzenintensit{\"a}ten von 10^11 Wcm^-2 erreicht. Die lichtinduzierten Tunnelstr{\"o}me zeigen eine quadratische Intensit{\"a}tsabh{\"a}ngigkeit, was einem Zwei-Photonen-Prozess entspricht, sowie eine ebenfalls nichtlineare Spannungsabh{\"a}ngigkeit. Zur Beschreibung der Daten wurde das Modell einer Multiphotonen-Photofeldemission verwendet, das auf der Fowler-Nordheim-Formel f{\"u}r Feldemission basiert. Durch geeignete Wahl der Modellparameter (Elektrodenabstand, Kr{\"u}mmungsradius der Elektrodenspitze und Barrierenh{\"o}he im Tunnelkontakt) war es m{\"o}glich, die Spannungsabh{\"a}ngigkeit des lichtinduzierten Signals zu reproduzieren.},
  subject      = {Tunnelkontakt},
  language  = {de}
}