Program Highlights

New Hybrid Heterostructure Nanophotonic Materials

Christos Argyropoulos, Mathias Schubert, and Eva Schubert
Nebraska MRSEC

The inherently weak light-matter interaction at the nanoscale can be enhanced by new metal-dielectric hybrid nanomaterials. This enhancement can enrich some of the quantum and nonlinear features of light, leading to new nanophotonic applications. Nebraska MRSEC researchers have designed new hybrid heterostructure nanophotonic materials composed of plasmonic metals and dielectrics to manipulate photons at optical frequencies. They demonstrated tunable plasmonic resonant responses with narrowband spectra that can be used for nanosensing applications. The proposed new nanomaterial platforms are envisioned to provide a rich material basis for studying new physics at the nanoscale. Of special interest is the coupling between quantum and nonlinear excitations in these new materials with their enhanced photonic fields. These interesting properties are expected to be useful for photonic and electronic devices as well as thermoelectric, photocatalytic, and energy storage applications.
U. Kilic, A. Mock, R. Feder, D. Sekora, M. Hilfiker, R. Korlacki, E. Schubert, C. Argyropoulos, and M. Schubert, “Tunable plasmonic resonances in Si-Au slanted columnar heterostructure thin films,” Scientific Reports 9, 71 (2019).

These programs are supported by the National Science Foundation, Division of Materials Research, Materials Research Science and Engineering Program, Grant DMR-1420645.

Top panel: Cross-section image of the designed new hybrid heterostructure nanophotonic material. Bottom panel: The computed electric field distribution, indicating a substantial field enhancement along its metallic nanoscale regions.