Polarization State of Light Scattered from Quantum Plasmonic Dimer Antennas

Plasmonic antennas are able to concentrate and re-emit light in a controllable manner through strong coupling between metallic nanostructures. Only recently has it found that quantum mechanical effects can drastically change the coupling strength as the feature size approaches atomic scales. Here, we present a comprehensive experimental and theoretical study of the evolution of the resonance peak and its polarization state as the dimer-antenna gap narrows to subnanometer scale. We clearly can identify the classical plasmonic regime, a crossover regime where nonlocal screening plays an important role, and the quantum regime where a charge transfer plasmon appears due to interparticle electron tunneling. Moreover, as the gap decreases from tens of to a few nanometers, the bonding dipole mode tends to emit photons with increasing polarizability. When the gap narrows to quantum regime, a significant depolarization of the mode emission is observed due to the reduction of the charge density of coupled quantum plasmons. These results would be beneficial for the understanding of quantum effects on emitting-polarization of nanoantennas and the development of quantum-based photonic nanodevices.