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Optical antenna thermal emitters

Nature Photonics volume 3, pages 658–661 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Optical antennas are a critical component in nanophotonics research1 and have been used to enhance nonlinear2,3 and Raman4 cross-sections and to make nanoscale optical probes5. In addition to their ‘receiving’ properties, optical antennas can operate in ‘broadcasting’ mode, and have been used to modify the emission rate6 and direction7 of individual molecules. In these applications the antenna must operate at frequencies given by existing light emitters. Using thermal excitation of optical antennas, we bypass this limitation and realize emitters at infrared frequencies where sources are less readily available. Specifically, we show that the thermal emission from a single SiC whisker antenna is attributable to well-defined, size-tunable Mie resonances8. Furthermore, we derive a fundamental limit on the antenna emittance and argue theoretically that these structures are nearly ideal black-body antennas. Combined with advancing progress in antenna design, these results could lead to optical antenna emitters operating throughout the infrared frequency range.

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Figure 1: Extinction and modal properties of a cylindrical SiC antenna.
Figure 2: Schematic of the experimental setup for thermal emission measurements of individual antenna emitters.
Figure 3: Measurements demonstrating the fundamental connection between the extinction and emittance properties of SiC antennas.
Figure 4: Demonstration that SiC cylinders can serve as perfect black-body antennas.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Zia for many helpful discussions. This work was supported by Northrop Grumman's Space Technology Research Labs and a US Department of Defense Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (F49550-04-1-0437).

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Author notes

  1. Thomas Taubner

    Present address: Present address: Institute of Physics (IA), RWTH Aachen University, 52056 Aachen, Germany,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geballe Lab for Advanced Materials, Stanford University, Stanford, 94306, California, USA

    Jon A. Schuller, Thomas Taubner & Mark L. Brongersma

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  1. Jon A. Schuller
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Contributions

J.A.S. and M.L.B. conceived the experiments. J.A.S. and T.T. designed the experimental apparatus. J.A.S. conducted the experiments and calculations. J.A.S. and M.L.B. co-wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Thomas Taubner or Mark L. Brongersma.

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Schuller, J., Taubner, T. & Brongersma, M. Optical antenna thermal emitters. Nature Photon 3, 658–661 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2009.188

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