High-quality optical hotspots with topology-protected robustness

Liu, Changxu and Maier, Stefan (2022) High-quality optical hotspots with topology-protected robustness. ACS Photonics, 9 (1). pp. 241-248. ISSN 2330-4022

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsphotonics.1c01445

Abstract

Optical hotspots underpin a wide variety of photonic devices ranging from sensing, nonlinear generation to photocatalysis, taking advantage of the strong light-matter interaction at the vicinity of photonic nanostructures. While plasmonic nanostructures have been widely used for strongly localized electromagnetic energy on surfaces, they suffer from high loss and consequently a low quality factor. Resonance-based dielectric structures provide an alternative solution with a larger quality factor, but there is a mismatch between the maximum values of the light confinement (quality factor) and the leakage (intensity in the near-field). Here, we propose to apply the concept of topological photonics to the formation of hotspots, producing them in both topological edge states and topological corner states. The topology secures strong light localization at the surface of the nanostructures where the underlying topological invariant shows a jump, generating a field hotspot with simultaneous increment of quality factor and light intensity. Meanwhile, it leverages a good robustness to fabrication imperfection including fluctuation in shape and misalignment. After a systematic investigation and comparison of the robustness between 1D and 2D topological structures, we conclude that the hotspots from 1D topological edge states promise a fertile playground for emerging applications that require both enhanced light intensity and high spectral resolution.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Funding Information: C.L. acknowledges the funding support from Humboldt Research Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. S.A.M. acknowledges the funding support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy, EXC 2089/1–390776260, the Solar Energies go Hybrid (SolTech) program and Lee-Lucas Chair in Physics.
Uncontrolled Keywords: dielectric resonators, disorder, hotspots, topological photonics, Biotechnology, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
Subjects: F100 Chemistry
Department: Faculties > Engineering and Environment > Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering
Depositing User: Elena Carlaw
Date Deposited: 22 Dec 2021 15:38
Last Modified: 21 Jan 2022 14:45
URI: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/48040

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