High efficiency coupling of light from photonic wire lasers into nano-antennas

Abstract

Plasmonic nano-antennas constructed by placing a sub-wavelength dielectric (e.g., air) gap between two metallic regions can generate high intense electric fields in small regions which can be used to excite nonlinear effects such as the Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering or to visualize nano-particles. However, since nano-antennas are passive devices, they need to be driven by external light sources. In this article, we study effective ways to combine photonic wire lasers and nano-antennas. We show that, by using linear tapers as couplers, we can efficiently couple light from lasers into nano-antennas and further enhance the electric fields inside the nano-antennas.