Seminar 2014

Optical nano antenna

1. Introduction
At radio-frequencies (RF), antennas are a well-established technology capable
of transmitting electromagnetic signals that are conned within very sub wavelength
volumes to the far-eld region. Over a century after Hertzs rst attempts to radiate
wireless signals through air, microwave antenna designers have derived a variety of
powerful tools to devise complex wireless communication links. In a different
community, recent progress in nanofabrication has allowed synthesizing and
positioning small metallic nanoparticles near ultra conned optical sources like
quantum dots and uorescent emitters. Large emission enhancements and signicant
boosting of the electromagnetic elds near such nanoparticles have been theoretically
predicted and experimentally observed in many con gurations, paving the way to the
new eld of optical antennas. This concept was effectively started by simply
analyzing nanoparticles whose shape may resemble the one of RF antennas (e.g., nano
dipole, nano dimer and nano bowtie antennas), but more recently the eld has
signicantly grown and researchers have been able to prove that the optical antenna
concept can realize the much sought bridge between nano scale optical signals,
conveyed by sub diffractive waveguides or emitted by conned optical or quantum
sources, and far-eld optical radiation, analogous to the functionality of a
conventional RF antenna. In this arena, optics specialists, as well as physicists,
chemists, material scientists and electrical engineers are currently working in a
common playground that holds the promise to revolutionize the understanding and
application of light-matter interaction, optical communications, quantum optics and
related research areas. In this exciting environment it may be relevant to translate and
transplant some of the expertise and design tools of RF antenna design to optical
frequencies, in order to tailor the coupling between conned optical sources and
emitters using the theory, modeling and design toolboxes developed over decades by
radio engineers. Essentially, light and radio waves are governed in the classical
domain by the same equations, and therefore similar phenomena may be expected.
Unfortunately, a direct translation of conventional antenna design rules to optical
frequencies is challenging, since material properties, physical operation and wavematter interaction change considerably when the operating frequency gets into the
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Optical nano antenna

near infrared and visible spectrum and the corresponding antenna relevant dimensions
become comparable to the crystal lattice of materials. In this context, signicant
recent theoretical work has been devoted to the analysis of these optical radiators,
with a variety of approaches and new concepts.

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Optical nano antenna

2. Major difference between optical and RF antenna operation

Before discussing a general paradigm for theory, modeling and applications of
optical antennas, it is relevant to discuss the major differences between optical and
conventional (RF) antenna operation. First of all, metals have remarkably different
electromagnetic response at optical frequencies as compared to RF. Conventional RF
antennas are usually realized with very good conductors characterized by highly sub
wavelength, usually negligible skin depth, in which conduction phenomena largely
dominate. At optical frequencies, however, conductivity is generally lower and
polarization and displacement effects play a much more important role. In many
senses, this modies the physics of antenna operation, and the denition of currents
and radiation properties of the antenna needs to consider displacement effects, in
addition to conduction. This is also usually manifested in the appearance of plasmonic
effects, associated with eld penetration in the metal. One aspect of this modication
of the metal properties is reected into the different propagation properties along a
metallic rod at optical frequencies. If the conduction currents at RF have a wavelength
equal to that of free-space, since no elds effectively penetrate into the metal, at
optical frequencies the displacement currents owing along the metal have much
shorter wavelengths than free-space. This leads to an important consequence: the
resonant length of a radio-frequency wire antenna is usually comparable to halfwavelength of operation, whereas it becomes signicantly smaller for optical
antennas. Related to the larger eld penetration in metals, loss and absorption may
also become relatively more important in optical antennas, affecting radiation
efciency and gain.

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Seminar 2014

Optical nano antenna

3. Nano circuit theory for optical nano antennas

Fig 1-(a) Optical nano dipole driven by an embedded optical source at its gap;
(b) A plasmonic nano strip line feeding a nano dipole antenna; (c) Thevenin
equivalent circuit model for these transmitting optical antennas.

At radio-frequencies, it is well accustomed to describing complex antenna

systems by modularizing their design in terms of few quantities of interest, such as its
input impedance, band- width, directivity and gain. The power of this approach is well
appreciated by RF engineers, and it is fundamentally based on the fact that, in
agreement with Thevenins theorem, it is possible to describe transmitting and
receiving antennas, as seen by the feeding or receiving lines, in terms of lumped
circuit loads. The goal of this section is to provide a review of highlights relative to
the translation of these concepts to optical antennas and show that it is indeed possible
to treat modularly also small nanoparticles driven by conned optical sources or sub
diffractive plasmonic waveguides. This concept is shown in Fig. 1(a), in which we
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Optical nano antenna

drive an analogy between an optical nano dipole, fed at its gap by the stimulated or
spontaneous emission of a conned quantum emitter, and a more conventional radiofrequency dipole driven by a lumped source at its terminal. In order to formally build
this analogy, there is a need to invoke the concept of optical nano circuit impedance.
Recently a paradigm for the quantitative description of light interaction with small
nanoparticles in terms of equivalent lumped circuit elements was introduced. The idea
is based on deriving circuit theory tools for optical frequencies similar to those
available at lower frequencies to RF engineers. In addition to optical nano lters and
complex nano circuit boards, this theory can be used to extend conventional antenna
theory to optical nano antennas. As discussed above, the role of conduction currents
along the arms of a conventional RF antenna needs to be augmented by, or at least
take into account, displacement and polarization currents owing along and inside a
plasmonic nano antenna. This implies that we should dene equivalent voltages,
currents and impedances by looking at the local displacement eld distribution
induced by an impinging optical excitation.
Consider a nano dipole (like the one on the left panel of Fig. 1(a)) made of a
plasmonic material with permittivity , excited by a localized optical emitter at its
gap. The continuity of the normal component of the displacement current density
Jd=jwE (under a time convention) at the nano dipole gap, where the local electric
eld, ensures that the effective current driven by the conned optical source jwP/l,
where P is the electric dipole moment in the gap and l is the gap height, is continuous
across the gap, and a current Id=JdS with being the transverse cross-sectional area of
the nano dipole drives the nano dipole terminals. This displacement current then ows
along the nano dipole arm similar to the conduction current owing along an RF
dipole antenna. In many senses, despite the different physical mechanisms, the two
systems may be described by similar rules and an effective optical voltage may be
dened at the gap. Notice that the usual Kirchhoffs circuit laws of voltages and
currents apply to these denitions, as long as retardation effects across the gap may be
neglected, as it is usually the case for the small electrical volumes considered here.
Similar considerations apply when the nano antenna is excited by an external line, as
in Fig. 1(b), such as a plasmonic nano strip waveguide feeding the antenna terminals,
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Optical nano antenna

or an impinging plane wave in the case of a receiving nano antenna. In all these
circumstances, it is possible to dene circuit quantities like and, as well as the nano
antenna optical input impedance. It is important to mention that alternative useful
denitions of the optical antenna impedance to describe the nano antenna operation as
dipoles with no specic terminals have also been put forward by Greffet et al. based
on power considerations. In that work, effective resistance and reactance are dened
consistent with the radiated power and stored energy induced around the nano
antenna, providing interesting results to compactly describe the wave interaction with
a given nano antenna system. This approach is different, as described above, and
becomes advantageous and arguably more useful when aimed at describing the optical
antenna as seen at its terminals by an optical feed, i.e., a conned optical source or an
optical transmission-line. This approach is particularly convenient in order to reduce
the complexity of the nano antenna response in light of Thevenins theorem. Its
application holds as long as retardation effects may be neglected along the terminals,
i.e., the terminal distance is much smaller than the wavelength of operation, and the
polarization of the elds is controlled.

Dept. of ECE

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Seminar 2014

Optical nano antenna

4. Radiation properties of optical nano antenna

Despite the same modeling approach, there are still clear differences between
RF and optical impedances, currents and voltages. For instance, RF (conduction)
currents are forced to be zero at the end of the antenna arms, whereas displacement
currents are not necessarily zero at the edge of a nano antenna. This makes the
effective length of optical antennas usually longer than their physical length, with
obvious implications on their resonance frequency, which is usually relatively redshifted compared to RF antennas. By applying the nano circuit concepts, not only may
we be able to efficiently describe the operation of a single nano antenna as seen by a
driving optical source, but also to tailor and design its shape and tune it to the desired
frequency. Similarly, it may be able to combine nanoparticles with different
impedance values to synthesize complex frequency responses of choice and use them
as nano load to tune and match the nano antenna response, analogous to conventional
RF antenna design. As detailed above, from the point of view of an arbitrary optical
source driving the terminal points of a nano antenna, it may be able to describe its
optical interaction in terms of the optical input impedance. Similar to RF antennas,
this quantity is independent of the specic form of excitation, and it may be
numerically calculated by applying an arbitrary voltage across the terminals and
measuring the induced current owing across the gap. This implies that it is possible
to fully describe the terminals of an optical antenna, both in transmitting and receiving
operation, using the Thevenin circuit model in Fig. 1(c), signicantly simplifying the
nano antenna design. Similar to RF, the input impedance depends on the choice of
terminal points, as well as on the overall antenna shape and geometry, but it is
independent on the type of excitation, the presence of nano loads at the terminals or
the antenna operation, whether transmitting or receiving. In determining the optical
input impedance, the size and geometry of the antenna gap may play a particularly
important role as compared to RF antennas, since in optics the nano antenna gap is
usually much smaller than its transverse thickness (diameter). For this reason, the gap
forms a non-negligible nano capacitance, where is the radius of each arm in Fig. 1.
This intrinsic load contributes to the overall input impedance in the Thevenin model
(Fig. 1(c)), which is effectively formed by the parallel combination of the gap
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Optical nano antenna

impedance and the intrinsic impedance of the nano antenna (see Fig. 1(c)). This may
represent an important advantage in operating optical antennas, since the load
impedance may be easily modied by placing a nanoparticle inside the antenna gap,
providing exciting possibilities for tuning and matching the optical antenna. Related
to the larger eld penetration in metals, loss and absorption may also become
relatively more important in optical antennas, affecting radiation efficiency and gain.

Fig 2- radiation pattern of optical nano antenna

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Optical nano antenna

5.Loading tuning and matching optical antennas

Previous section discussed that familiar concepts like input impedance,
directivity, radiation resistance and efficiency may be properly dened to characterize
the radiation properties of optical antennas. The goal of this section is to apply these
concepts for nano antenna design and operation, e.g., to devise efcient optical
wireless links at the nano scale, or to tune receiving and transmitting antennas. It is
obvious that maximum power transfer and minimized reections at the feeding point
are obtained, also for optical antennas, when the input impedance matches the
impedance of the feeding line or source. In this regard, inserting a small nanoparticle
at the gap of an optical antenna may tune the resonance frequency, and accordingly
modify the input resistance.
Even though there are evident differences in the optical propagation properties
as compared to RF, and optical links are necessarily expected to operate within lineof-sight, the implications of this concept may be groundbreaking for on-chip wireless
communications and optical computing. Friis formula may be applied to these optical
links in order to characterize the overall transmission link. It is obvious that these
wireless links can easily outperform any wired optical system, since the power
decay drops with the distance only as rather than exponentially as in any lossy line.
Interestingly, the nano circuit concepts may also be applied to complementary
antenna geometries as the Babinet nano antennas schematically shown in Fig. 3. In
this context, it is important to notice that the optical properties and light interaction
with nano apertures have been studied for decades. More recently, there has been a
revived interest in the optics of these nanostructures interpreted as optical antennas,
used to boost spontaneous or stimulated emission or simply the optical transmission
through an opaque screen. These optical antennas, which may be obtained by carving
suitable shapes in a plasmonic screen and working with the effective magnetic

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currents

induced

Optical nano antenna

in

the

aperture,

may

be

analyzed

and

modelled.

Fig 3-Concept of Babinet nano antennas obtained as carved apertures on a plasmonic

screen.

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Optical nano antenna

6. Applications
A. Field Enhancement and Sensing

One of the peculiar properties of optical nano antennas consists in the large
eld enhancement in specic regions, supported by plasmonic effects. This enhanced
and largely controllable eld may be used to realize compact optical sensors. In this
regard, it has been recently shown that the antenna sensitivity may be tailored by
manipulating the input impedance of the antenna using conventional antenna design
rules. This is particularly relevant for bio sensing and surface-enhanced Raman
scattering (SERS) applications, as it may be able to optimize their performance by
translating some conventional antenna design concepts into seemingly unrelated
disciplines and much larger frequencies of operation.

B. Nonlinear Nano antennas

Optical nano antennas can provide large eld enhancement at the gap. One
exciting possibility in order to exploit this feature consists in enhancing nonlinear
optical processes, which are usually weak in natural materials. It should be stressed
that this is rather different from RF nonlinear antenna operation, like in the case of
rectantennas or antennas loaded with nonlinear circuit elements. In fact, RF circuit
elements usually respond to voltage rather than local electric eld, and therefore a
large eld enhancement over a short electrical length does not necessarily correspond
to large non- linear effects. At optical frequencies, on the contrary, the large and
controllable eld enhancement at the nano antenna gaps may indeed open unique
opportunities to design integrated optical switches and memories at the nano scale.

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Optical nano antenna

C. Active Nano antennas and Quantum Effects

The advances in the eld of optical nano antennas have been motivated by
unconventional possibilities offered by the small sizes of these devices, which are
usually comparable with the size of structural lattice of materials. Quantum effects
may be- come very important in this regime and not only should be properly taken
into account, as discussed above, but they may be used to the designers advantage to
enhance light- matter interaction at the nano scale and investigate matter at the
quantum level. In this context, by using dyes or active materials as loads of optical
antennas, one may be able to achieve lasing at the nano scale, with exciting
possibilities for coherent stimulated emission from ultra conned sources and the
synthesis of spasers, or surface-plasmon nano lasers. In these situations, loss
compensation and huge eld enhancements may be obtained, further re-enhancing the
scope and potential reach of optical nano antennas in a variety of elds. It is important
to mention that modeling quantum sources near optical antennas requires proper semiclassical tools, as highlighted in the previous section. Quenching and modication of
the emission properties of small quantum emitters should be carefully considered
when they are coupled in close proximity to nano antennas at resonance.

D. Energy-Harvesting, Conjugate Matching

The exciting properties of optical nano antennas have also been explored in
connections with energy applications. Large eld enhancements are usually
associated with more efcient energy harvesting, suggesting a route to apply optical
nano antennas to solar cells and photo mixers. Although the large eld enhancement
discussed in the previous applications are usually limited to sub wavelength volumes
around the gap, and therefore probably of limited use in a practical solar cell, it has
been suggested that tailoring the scattering spectrum of large arrays of optical nano

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Optical nano antenna

antennas using the concepts outlined above may provide large benets in energyharvesting devices. In addition, concepts like optical conjugate matching may be
directly translated to optical nano antennas by using the tools outlined in the previous
sections, providing a direct way to maximize the power received by the load by a
proper antenna design. These concepts may pave the way for novel mechanisms and
designs for efcient energy conversion systems based on optical nano antennas.

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Optical nano antenna

7. Conclusion
An overview of the recent research activity on optical antennas, which has
grown very rapidly in the last few years and currently spans a broad range of areas,
including optics, physics, chemistry, electrical engineering, biology, and medicine, to
cite a few. The inherent multidisciplinary nature of this eld provides fertile
opportunities for antenna engineers, who possess an established toolbox for
optimizing wireless radiation and maximizing its efficiency. Some of these concepts
may be translated to optical frequencies, beneting a rich plethora of novel antenna
applications. Huge bandwidths, optical wireless links, large local eld enhancements,
strong light-matter interaction and boosted quantum effects may be of great interest
for a variety of timely research areas, in which RF concepts may be of great impact.
The present work aims at devising a bridge between the established antenna
community and the emerging interdisciplinary areas interested in optical nano
antennas. There is a lot to gain from both sides by sharing the different concepts and
knowledge.

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Optical nano antenna

8. References
[1]

P. Muhlschlegel,H. J.Eisler, O. J. F. Martin, B. Hecht, andD.W. Pohl,

Resonant optical antennas, Science, vol. 308, pp. 16071609, 2005.

[2]

J. N. Farahani, D.W. Pohl, H.-J. Eisler, and B. Hecht, Single quantum

dot coupled to a scanning optical antenna: A tunable superemitter,
Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 95, no. 1, p. 017402, 2005.

[3]

K. B.Crozier,A. Sundaramurthy,G. S. Kino, andC. F. Quate, Optical

antennas: Resonators for local field enhancement, J. Appl. Phys., vol.
94, no. 7, pp. 46324642, 2003.

[4]

Theory, Modeling and Features of Optical Nano antennas

Andrea Al, Senior Member, IEEE, and Nader Engheta, Fellow, IEEE

[5]

www.wikipedia.com

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