Origin of third harmonic generation in plasmonic nanoantennas

authored by

Antonino Calà Lesina, Pierre Berini, Lora Ramunno

Abstract

Plasmonic nanoantennas have been recently proposed to boost nonlinear optical processes. In a metal dipole nanoantenna with a dielectric nanoparticle placed in the gap, the linear field enhancement can be exploited to enhance third harmonic emission. Since both metals and dielectrics exhibit nonlinearity, the nonlinear far-field contains contributions from each, and the diffculty of measuring these contributions separately has led to seemingly contradictory interpretations about the origin of the nonlinear emission. We determine that the origin of the third harmonic from metal-dielectric dipole nanoantennas depends on nanoantenna design, and in particular, the width. We find that the emission from gold dominates in thin threadlike nanoantennas, whereas the emission from the gap material dominates in wider nanoantennas. We also find that the nonlinear emission from gold in dipole nanoantennas is lower than monopoles of comparable dimensions, but that placing a highly nonlinear material in their gaps makes the nonlinear emission from the gap material dominate over gold.

External Organisation(s)

University of Ottawa

Type

Article

Journal

Optical materials express

Volume

7

Pages

1575-1580

No. of pages

6

ISSN

2159-3930

Publication date

11.04.2017

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1364/OME.7.001575 (Access: Unknown)