Quantum and Nonlinear Phenomena in Plasmonics

Funding agency: Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation
Duration: January 2012-December 2014
Principal Investigator: Francisco J. Garcia-Vidal

Description:
We study from a theoretical perspective several electromagnetic phenomena that appear in structured metals.
More precisely, we address the following topics:

1. Study of extraordinary optical transmission through apertures in the presence of resonant molecular systems: strong coupling between molecules and plasmons, and analysis of the yet unexplained the transmission resonance induced by the molecular absorption band.
2. Metallic metamaterials: exploration of the geometrical impedance concept in the optical regime, and study of whether added non-linear materials can reduce absorption losses.
3. Optimization of SP based optical devices, as hole arrays for use in IR absorption  spectroscopy, and apertures flanked by surface corrugations for miniaturized detectors.
4. Exploration of the transferability of plasmonic phenomena to sound waves.
5. Graphene plasmonics: study of the optical properties of graphene, especially those related to the bound electromagnetic modes that this material supports.
6. Non-linear phenomena and lasing: study of the optical effect associated to the intrinsic non-linear response of metals, and development of theoretical framework to treat simultaneously the dynamic of optical-gain materials and the electromagnetic field in plasmonic structures, for its application to pumped systems, solitons in waveguides and lasing in metallo-dielectric systems showing strong field enhancement.
7. Transformation optics for plasmonics and its application to the study of non-local effects.
8. Quantum plasmonics: tailoring effective interactions between quantum emitters via surface plasmons, study of the quantum noise of surface plasmons under excitation with non-classical fields and ways to generate single plasmons and entangled pairs.