@phdthesis{Gross2019,
  author    = {Groß, Heiko},
  title     = {Controlling Light-Matter Interaction between Localized Surface Plasmons and Quantum Emitters},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-19209},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-192097},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {Metal nanostructures have been known for a long time to exhibit optical resonances via localized surface plasmons. The high electric fields in close proximity to the metal surface have prospects to dramatically change the dynamics of electronic transitions, such as an enhanced spontaneous decay rate of a single emitter. However, there have been two major issues which impede advances in the experimental realization of enhanced light-matter interaction. (i) The fabrication of high-quality resonant structures requires state-of-the-art patterning techniques in combination with superior materials. (ii) The tiny extension of the optical near-field requires precise control of the single emitter with respect to the nanostructure. This work demonstrates a solution to these problems by combining scanning probe and optical confocal microscopy. Here, a novel type of scanning probe is introduced which features a tip composed of the edge of a single crystalline gold sheet. The patterning via focused ion beam milling makes it possible to introduce a plasmonic nanoresonator directly at the apex of the tip. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the optical properties of this kind of scanning probe are ideal to analyze light-matter interaction. Detailed experimental studies investigate the coupling mechanism between a localized plasmon and single colloidal quantum dots by dynamically changing coupling strength via their spatial separation. The results have shown that weak interaction affects the shape of the fluorescence spectrum as well as the polarization. For the best probes it has been found that it is possible to reach the strong coupling regime at the single emitter level at room temperature. The resulting analysis of the experimental data and the proposed theoretical models has revealed the differences between the established far-field coupling and near-field coupling. It has been found that the broad bandwidth of plasmonic resonances are able to establish coherent coupling to multiple transitions simultaneously giving rise to an enhanced effective coupling strength. It has also been found that the current model to numerically calculate the effective mode volume is inaccurate in case of mesoscopic emitters and strong coupling. Finally, light-matter interaction is investigated by the means of a quantum-dot-decorated microtubule which is traversing a localized nearfield by gliding on kinesin proteins. This biological transport mechanism allows the parallel probing of a meta-surface with nm-precision. The results that have been put forward throughout this work have shed new light on the understanding of plasmonic light-matter interaction and might trigger ideas on how to more efficiently combine the power of localized electric fields and novel excitonic materials.},
  subject      = {Plasmon},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Kramer2017,
  author    = {Kramer, Christian},
  title     = {Investigation of Nanostructure-Induced Localized Light Phenomena Using Ultrafast Laser Spectroscopy},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-150681},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {In recent years, the interaction of light with subwavelength structures, i.e., structures that are smaller than the optical wavelength, became more and more interesting to scientific research, since it provides the opportunity to manipulate light-induced dynamics below the optical diffraction limit. Specifically designed nanomaterials can be utilized to tailor the temporal evolution of electromagnetic fields at the nanoscale. For the investigation of strongly localized processes, it is essential to resolve both their spatial and their temporal behavior. The aim of this thesis was to study and/or control the temporal evolution of three nanostructure-induced localized light phenomena by using ultrafast laser spectroscopy with high spatial resolution. In Chapter 4, the absorption of near-infrared light in thin-film a-Si:H solar cells was investigated. Using nanotextured instead of smooth interfaces for such devices leads to an increase of absorption from < 20\% to more than 50\% in the near-infrared regime. Time-resolved experiments with femtosecond laser pulses were performed to clarify the reason for this enhancement. The coherent backscattered radiation from nanotextured solar cell devices was measured as a function of the sample position and evaluated via spectral interferometry. Spatially varying resonance peaks in the recorded spectra indicated the formation of localized photonic modes within the nanotextured absorber layers. In order to identify the modes separately from each other, coherent two-dimensional (2D) nanoscopy was utilized, providing a high spatial resolution < 40 nm. In a nanoscopy measurement on a modified device with an exposed nanotextured a-Si:H absorber layer, hot-spot electron emission was observed and confirmed the presence of localized modes. Fitting the local 2D nanospectra at the hot-spot positions enabled the determination of the resonance frequencies and coherence lifetimes of the modes. The obtained lifetime values varied between 50 fs and 130 fs. Using a thermionic emission model allowed the calculation of the locally absorbed energy density and, with this, an estimation of the localization length of the photonic modes (≈1 μm). The localization could be classified by means of the estimated localization length and additional data evaluation of the backscattered spectra as strong localization ─ the so-called Anderson localization. Based on the experimental results, it was concluded that the enhanced absorption of near-infrared light in thin-film silicon solar cells with nanotextured interfaces is caused by the formation of strongly localized photonic modes within the disordered absorber layers. The incoming near-infrared light is trapped in these long-living modes until absorption occurs. In Chapter 5, a novel hybridized plasmonic device was introduced and investigated in both theory and experiment. It consists of two widely separated whispering gallery mode (WGM) nanoantennas located in an elliptical plasmonic cavity. The goal was to realize a periodic long-range energy transfer between the nanoantennas. In finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations, the device was first optimized with respect to strong coupling between the localized antenna modes and the spatially-extended cavity mode. The geometrical parameters of the antennas and the cavity were adjusted separately so that the m="0" antenna mode and the cavity mode were resonant at λ="800 nm" . A high spatial overlap of the modes was achieved by positioning the two antennas in the focal spots of the cavity, leading to a distance between the antenna centers of more than twice the resonant wavelength of the modes. The spectral response of the optimized device revealed an energy splitting of the antenna and the cavity mode into three separated hybridized eigenmodes within an energy range of about 90 meV due to strong coupling. It could be well reproduced by a simple model of three coupled Lorentzian oscillators. In the time domain, an oscillatory energy transfer between both antennas with a period of 86 fs and an energy transfer efficiency of about 7\% was observed for single-pulse excitation. For the experiments, devices with cavities and antennas of varying size were fabricated by means of focused-ion-beam (FIB) milling. Time-resolved correlation measurements were performed with high spatial and temporal resolution by using sequences of two femtosecond laser pulses for excitation and photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM) for detection. Local correlation traces at antennas in resonant devices, i.e., devices with enhanced electron emission at both antenna positions, were investigated and reconstructed by means of the coupled-oscillator model. The corresponding spectral response revealed separated peaks, confirming the formation of hybridized eigenmodes due to strong coupling. In a subsequent simulation for single-pulse excitation, one back-and-forth energy transfer between both antennas with an energy transfer efficiency of about 10\% was observed. Based on the theoretical and experimental results, it was demonstrated that in the presented plasmonic device a periodic long-range energy transfer between the two nanoantennas is possible. Furthermore, the coupled-oscillator model enables one to study in depth how specific device properties impact the temporal electric-field dynamics within the device. This can be exploited to further optimize energy transfer efficiency of the device. Future applications are envisioned in ultrafast plasmonic nanocircuitry. Moreover, the presented device can be employed to realize efficient SPP-mediated strong coupling between widely separated quantum emitters. In Chapter 6, it was investigated in theory how the local optical chirality enhancement in the near field of plasmonic nanostructures can be optimized by tuning the far-field polarization of the incident light. An analytic expression was derived that enables the calculation of the optimal far-field polarizations, i.e., the two far-field polarizations which lead to the highest positive and negative local optical chirality, for any given nanostructure geometry. The two optimal far-field polarizations depend on the local optical response of the respective nanostructure and thus are functions of both the frequency ω and the position r. Their ellipticities differ only in their sign, i.e., in their direction of rotation in the time domain, and the angle between their orientations, i.e., the angle between the principal axes of their ellipses, is ±π/"2" . The handedness of optimal local optical chirality can be switched by switching between the optimal far-field polarizations. In numerical simulations, it was exemplarily shown for two specific nanostructure assemblies that the optimal local optical chirality can significantly exceed the optical chirality values of circularly polarized light in free space ─ the highest possible values in free space. The corresponding optimal far-field polarizations were different from linear and circular and varied with frequency. Using femtosecond polarization pulse shaping provides the opportunity to coherently control local optical chirality over a continuous frequency range. Furthermore, symmetry properties of nanostructures can be exploited to determine which far-field polarization is optimal. The theoretical findings can have impact on future experimental studies about local optical chirality enhancement. Tuning the far-field polarization of the incident light offers a promising tool to enhance chirally specific interactions of local electromagnetic fields with molecular and other quantum systems in the vicinity of plasmonic nanostructures. The presented approach can be utilized for applications in chiral sensing of adsorbed molecules, time-resolved chirality-sensitive spectroscopy, and chiral quantum control. In conclusion, each of the localized light phenomena that were investigated in this thesis ─ the enhanced local absorption of near-infrared light due to the formation of localized photonic modes, the periodic long-range energy transfer between two nanoantennas within an elliptical plasmonic cavity, and the optimization of local optical chirality enhancement by tuning the far-field polarization of the incident light ─ can open up new perspectives for a variety of future applications. .},
  subject      = {Ultrakurzzeitspektroskopie},
  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{Rewitz2014,
  author    = {Rewitz, Christian},
  title     = {Far-Field Characterization and Control of Propagating Ultrashort Optical Near Fields},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-94887},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {In this work, femtosecond laser pulses are used to launch optical excitations on different nanostructures. The excitations are confined below the diffraction limit and propagate along the nanostructures. Fundamental properties of these ultrashort optical near fields are determined by characterizing the far-field emission after propagation with a setup developed for this task. Furthermore, control of the nanooptical excitations' spatial and temporal evolution is demonstrated for a designed nanostructure.},
  subject      = {Nahfeldoptik},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Tuchscherer2012,
  author    = {Tuchscherer, Philip},
  title     = {A Route to Optical Spectroscopy on the Nanoscale},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-72228},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2012},
  abstract  = {Time-resolved optical spectroscopy has become an important tool to investigate the dynamics of quantum mechanical processes in matter. In typical applications, a first "pump" pulse excites the system under investigation from the thermal equilibrium to an excited state, and a second variable time-delayed "probe" pulse then maps the dynamics of the excited system. Although advanced nonlinear techniques have been developed to investigate, e.g., coherent quantum effects, all of these techniques are limited in their spatial resolution. The laser focus diameter has a lower bound given by Abbe's diffraction limit, which is roughly half the optical excitation wavelength—corresponding to about 400nm in the presented experiments. In the time-resolved experiments that have been suggested so far, averaging over the sample volume within this focus cannot be avoided. In this thesis, two approaches were developed to overcome the diffraction limit in optical spectroscopy and to enable the investigation of coherent processes on the nanoscale. In the first approach, analytic solutions were found to calculate optimal polarizationshaped laser pulses that provide optical near-field pump-probe pulse sequences in the vicinity of a nanostructure. These near-field pulse sequences were designed to allow excitation of a quantum system at one specific position at a certain time and probing at a different position at a later time. In the second approach, the concept of coherent two-dimensional (2D) spectroscopy, which has had great impact on the investigation of coherent quantum effects in recent years, was combined with photoemission electron microscopy, which yields a spatial resolution well below the optical diffraction limit. Using the analytic solutions, optical near fields were investigated in terms of spectroscopic applications. Near fields that are excited with polarization-shaped femtosecond laser pulses in the vicinity of appropriate nanostructures feature two properties that are especially interesting in the view of spectroscopic applications: On the one hand, control of the spatial distribution of the optical fields is achieved on the order of nanometers. On the other hand, the temporal evolution of these fields can be adjusted on the order of femtoseconds. In this thesis, solutions were found to calculate the optimal polarizationshaped laser pulses that control the near field in a general manner. The main idea to achieve this deterministic control was to disentangle the spatial and temporal near-field control. First, the spatial distribution of the optical near field was controlled by assigning the correct state of polarization for each frequency within the polarization-shaped laser pulse independently. The remaining total phase—not employed for spatial control—was then used for temporal near-field compression, which, in experimental applications, would lead to an enhancement of the nonlinear signal at the respective location. In contrast to the use of optical near fields, where pump-probe sequences themselves are localized below the diffraction limit and the detection does not have to provide the spatial resolution, a different approach was suggested in this thesis to gain spectroscopic information on the nanoscale. The new method was termed "Coherent two-dimensional (2D) nanoscopy" and transfers the concept of "conventional" coherent 2D spectroscopy to photoemission electron microscopy. The pulse sequences used for the investigation of quantum systems in this method are still limited by diffraction. However, the new key concept is to detect locally generated photoelectrons instead of optical signals. This yields a spatial resolution that is well below the optical diffraction limit. In "conventional" 2D spectroscopy a triple-pulse sequence initiates a four wave mixing process that creates a coherence. In a quantum mechanical process, this coherence is converted into a population by emission of an electric field, which is measured in the experiment. Contrarily, in the developed 2D nanoscopy, four-wave mixing is initiated by a quadruple-pulse sequence, which leaves the quantum system in an electronic population. This electronic population carries coherent information about the investigated quantum system and can be mapped with a spatial resolution down to a few nanometers given by the spatial resolution of the photoemission electron microscope. Hence, 2D nanoscopy can be considered a generalization of time-resolved photoemission experiments. In the future, it may be of similar beneficial value for the field of photoemission research as "conventional" 2D spectroscopy has proven to be for optical spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance experiments. In a first experimental implementation of coherent 2D nanoscopy coherent processes on a corrugated silver surface were measured and unexpected long coherence lifetimes could be determined.},
  subject      = {Ultrakurzzeitspektroskopie},
  language  = {en}
}