Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2019 Jul;18(7):668-678.
doi: 10.1038/s41563-019-0290-y. Epub 2019 Apr 1.

Extreme nanophotonics from ultrathin metallic gaps

Jeremy J Baumberg  1 , Javier Aizpurua  2 , Maiken H Mikkelsen  3 , David R Smith  3
Affiliations
Review

Extreme nanophotonics from ultrathin metallic gaps

Jeremy J Baumberg et al. Nat Mater. 2019 Jul.

Abstract

Ultrathin dielectric gaps between metals can trap plasmonic optical modes with surprisingly low loss and with volumes below 1 nm3. We review the origin and subtle properties of these modes, and show how they can be well accounted for by simple models. Particularly important is the mixing between radiating antennas and confined nanogap modes, which is extremely sensitive to precise nanogeometry, right down to the single-atom level. Coupling nanogap plasmons to electronic and vibronic transitions yields a host of phenomena including single-molecule strong coupling and molecular optomechanics, opening access to atomic-scale chemistry and materials science, as well as quantum metamaterials. Ultimate low-energy devices such as robust bottom-up assembled single-atom switches are thus in prospect.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Ritchie, R. H. Plasma losses by fast electrons in thin films. Phys. Rev. 106, 874–881 (1957).
    1. Krenn, J. R. et al. Squeezing the optical near-field zone by plasmon coupling of metallic nanoparticles. Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 2590–2593 (1999).
    1. Krenn, J. R. et al. Direct observation of localized surface plasmon coupling. Phys. Rev. B 60, 5029–5033 (1999).
    1. Ditlbacher, H., Krenn, J. R., Schider, G., Leitner, A. & Aussenegg, F. R. Two-dimensional optics with surface plasmon polaritons. Appl. Phys. Lett. 81, 1762–1764 (2002).
    1. Maier, S. A. et al. Local detection of electromagnetic energy transport below the diffraction limit in metal nanoparticle plasmon waveguides. Nat. Mater. 2, 229–232 (2003).

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources