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Mie Resonance Engineering in Meta-Shell Supraparticles for Nanoscale Nonlinear Optics.
Joong Hwan Bahng1, Saman Jahani1, Douglas G Montjoy2
1Department of Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91107, United States.
ACS Nano
|December 8, 2020
Summary
Researchers developed meta-shell supraparticles (MSPs) for enhanced nonlinear nanophotonics. These colloidal superstructures significantly boost second harmonic generation (SHG) for wavelength conversion applications.
Area of Science:
- Nanophotonics
- Colloidal Science
- Metamaterials
Background:
- Supraparticles are ordered assemblies of nanoscale building blocks with unique optical properties.
- Individual building blocks or bulk materials do not exhibit the holistic optical responses seen in supraparticles.
- Subwavelength dimensions of building blocks allow for integrating optical metamaterials within supraparticles, a challenge in colloidal engineering.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce and demonstrate the nanophotonics of meta-shell supraparticles (MSPs).
- To engineer Mie resonances within MSPs for enhanced nonlinear optical effects.
- To achieve significant enhancement of second harmonic generation (SHG) using colloidal superstructures.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of all-dielectric colloidal superstructures (MSPs) with a nonlinear metamaterial shell on a spherical core.
- Utilizing the metamaterial shell to engineer Mie resonances within the MSP.
- Characterizing the optical nonlinearities, specifically second harmonic generation (SHG).
Main Results:
- Demonstrated significant enhancement of SHG in MSPs compared to individual building blocks.
- Achieved several orders of magnitude increase in SHG.
- Reported an absolute conversion efficiency as high as 10^-7 for SHG with low-index colloids, near the damage threshold.
Conclusions:
- MSPs offer a colloidal platform for advanced nanophotonics with tunable electromagnetic responses.
- The engineered metamaterial shell effectively enhances SHG via Mie resonance manipulation.
- MSPs provide practical solutions for wavelength conversion in chemical and biological applications, paving the way for diverse nonlinear nanophotonics.
