Hotspot-mediated non-dissipative and ultrafast plasmon passage

Roller, Eva-Maria; Besteiro, Lucas V.; Pupp, Claudia; Khorashad, Larousse Khosravi; Govorov, Alexander O. und Liedl, Tim (2017): Hotspot-mediated non-dissipative and ultrafast plasmon passage. In: Nature Physics, Bd. 13, Nr. 8: S. 761-765

Abstract

Plasmonic nanoparticles hold great promise as photonhandling elements and as channels for coherent transfer of energy and information in future all-optical computing devices(1-5). Coherent energy oscillations between two spatially separated plasmonic entities via a virtual middle state exemplify electron-based population transfer, but their realization requires precise nanoscale positioning of heterogeneous particles(6-10). Here, we show the assembly and optical analysis of a triple-particle system consisting of two gold nanoparticles with an interspaced silver island. We observe strong plasmonic coupling between the spatially separated gold particles, mediated by the connecting silver particle, with almost no dissipation of energy. As the excitation energy of the silver island exceeds that of the gold particles, only quasi-occupation of the silver transfer channel is possible. We describe this effect both with exact classical electrodynamic modelling and qualitative quantum-mechanical calculations. We identify the formation of strong hotspots between all particles as the main mechanism for the lossless coupling and thus coherent ultrafast energy transfer between the remote partners. Our findings could prove useful for quantum gate operations, as well as for classical charge and information transfer processes.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Physik
• Fakultätsübergreifende Einrichtungen: Center for NanoScience (CENS)
• Themengebiete: 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik > 530 Physik ; 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik > 500 Naturwissenschaften
• ISSN: 1745-2473
• Sprache: Englisch