Plasmonic Low-Profile Nanoantenna Reflectors

Xing-Xiang Liu,* and Andrea Alu

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
The University of Texas at Austin,
Austin, TX 78712, U.S.A.
E-mail: xxliu@mail.utexas.edu, alu@mail.utexas.edu

Abstract

We describe here the possibility to realize ultralow profile nanoantenna reflectors, which
may manipulate optical radiation and emission due to their plasmonic interaction with
light. Classic concepts at microwave frequencies, such as reflectarray and holographic
antennas are applied here to plasmonic materials, with the goal to achieve a large degree
of flexibility and tunability for low-profile reflectors, with potential applications in nano-
photonics and optical communications.

Introduction

Light manipulation, focusing, emission enhancement and tailoring of optical radiation are
crucial concepts to be able to fully translate the classic communication tools from radio to
optical frequencies. This may open the possibility of unprecedented bandwidths and data
rates in optical communications and of realizing the much sought link between nanoscale
light processing and free-space radiation. Solutions to well known technical challenges at
lower frequencies may be applied in the visible domain to improve the currently
primitive state of the art of optical nanoantennas. Such devices have been recently
proposed at optical frequencies, with due modifications with respect to radio-frequencies
(RF), due to the differences in which light interacts with metals at such high frequencies
[1]-[4]. The realization of these devices is clearly more challenging than their radio-
frequency counterparts, not only due to the finite conductivity and penetrability of metals,
but also to the challenges of nanoscale fabrication. Also, due to such small scale, it may
not be practical to translate well-developed antenna devices, such as parabolic reflectors,
from microwave engineering to optics. Different concepts and paradigms are required to
achieve analogous antenna functionalities in this regime. In the following, we propose
novel venues to manipulate the optical radiation with nanoantenna reflectors
characterized by ultralow profile, capable of enhancing light emission in the desired
direction with a large degree of tunability, in some senses analogous to a conventional RF
reflectarray [5]. We suggest the use of plasmonic grooves in a reflecting surface to tailor
the phase response on a plasmonic screen and the application of holographic methods to
achieve constructive interference at the desired radiation angle. These designs take
advantage of the peculiar radiation enhancement of properly corrugated plasmonic
surfaces [6], which allows an overall increase of emitted power, in addition to the drastic
increase of directivity produced by the patterned surface. The overall result is a system
capable of enhancing the transmitted and/or received power by orders of magnitude with
a large degree of flexibility and tunability, of interest for a variety of optical applications.

Plasmonic Nano-Reflectarray Geometry

The phenomenon of strongly enhanced transmission and highly directional emission
through a single subwavelength slit surrounded by properly designed concentric circular
grooves in a plasmonic surface has been reported in recent theoretical and experimental
papers [7]-[8]. By considering the full coupling among the aperture and grooves, one can
build a set of linear equations to derive the proper geometry that may enhance the overall
transmission from a small aperture. Similar to a reflectarray at radio frequencies, beam
directivity may be achieved by properly engineering the phase delay in each groove in
order to shape the wave front of the reflected wave from the surface. These concepts may
be then extended to enhancing and patterning the radiation of optical emitters, and by
reciprocity the absorption properties of energy-harvesting devices.
Consider a plasmonic plate with a single subwavelength slit aperture surrounded by 2N
grooves. As shown in Fig. 1, the slit and grooves, with identical width a and individual
depth di , are positioned periodically with a center-to-center distance p . We assume that
a TM polarized plane wave is impinging on the aperture from the unpatterned side, and
we determine the overall coupling between all openings. We restrict ourselves to a 2-D
problem at present, but extension to the other plane of polarization and 3-D geometry
may be envisioned.
-N … -3 -2 -1 1 2 3 …N

di k
p
a
E
Figure 1 - Schematic picture of the slit-groove structure

In this polarization, the slit and the groove support a dominant TM mode with dispersion
− β 2 − ε m k 2 [9], where ε m is the permittivity of the
relation ε m β 2 − k 2 tanh  β 2 − k 2 a / 2  =
 
metal substrate and β is the waveguide propagating constant. The effective admittance at
each groove opening is Yi = j k cot ( β di ) , where η is the characteristic modal impedance.
βη
Having this useful information, we may consider the full-coupling between the excited
slit and the set of grooves to build a set of linear equations:
= EiYi ∑ Gij E j + δ i 0 A0 . (1)
i≠ j

Here, Ei are the 2 N + 1 electric field unknown amplitudes at each groove aperture, A0 is
the external illumination at the central slit and Gij = k
H 0(1)  k x − x '  dx 'dx is the
2aη ∫ai ∫a j
−  
effective coupled admittance between groove i and j .

It is noticed that in order to manipulate the amplitude and phase of the field on each
aperture, we may tailor their effective input admittance, which is directly related to their
depth and geometry. Proper choice of the groove depth di may tailor, in principle, the
beam directivity towards any specific direction of choice, in the near- or far-field. In
order to obtain the optimized depth of each groove for the application of interest, we
provide initial values of interest for the groove depth and solve for the electric field at the
opening. Although the electric fields Ei are determined by mutual coupling between all
the neighbors, their magnitudes are mainly dominated by the distance from the central slit.
The phase of Ei , however, may be tailored by properly modifying the groove admittance
to tailor the final wave front of interest. An iteration procedure may yield the optimized
values of groove depth to achieve this goal. As an example, Figure 2(a) and (b) show
optimized groove setups to provide beam radiation at 10 and 30 degrees, by assigning
different sets of groove depths on silver substrate. In this structure, each opening has a
width of 50 nm, and the silver thickness is 400 nm. We have modeled the metal with
proper Drude dispersion: ω p = 2.18 × 10 Hz, γ =4.35 × 10 Hz [10]. It is noticed that
analogous results may be achieved by filling the grooves with materials with different
permittivity. Figure 2(c) shows an equal-depth groove array filled with optimized
dielectric constant, to direct the optical beam at 10 degrees from the normal. Nonlinear or
optically active materials may be employed to create tunable effects in this case, of
interest for real-time patterning of the radiation pattern.
(a) Arb. Unit (b) Arb. Unit (c) Arb. Unit
10° 30° 10°

λ=675 nm λ=700 nm
λ=675 nm

Figure 2 - Electric field radiation from an optical nano-reflectarray: the phase of the field on the
surface may be patterned to arbitrarily radiate at any direction of interest.

Holographic Nanoantenna Array

These concepts may be further extended by applying the concept of optical holography
[11]. A holographic nanoantenna array may be designed by placing a source (optical
emitter, or slit aperture as in the previous section) on a planar surface, and interfere its
radiation with the desired reference signal of choice. The recorded interference pattern is
then printed on the surface, to constitute the nanoantenna array, as schematized in Fig. 3.
(a) Incident (b) (c)
Plane wave
dipole
radiation

Groove depth: 75 nm

Fine-grain photo plate

Figure 3 – Realization of a plasmonic holographic nanoantenna. (a) Interference of a reference
signal of interest (oblique incident wave) and point dipole radiation; (b) the interference patterns
are recorder (in this case for a 15 degree incidence angle); (c) the slit-groove structure is printed as
a set of grooves on a plasmonic surface. The wavelength of excitation is 600 nm in this example.

If now the same source is excited over such corrugated silver plate, the resulting radiation
pattern will reproduce the desired reference signal of interest. Differently from regular
optical holograms, the plasmonic features allow an extremely low-profile for each groove
and a strong emission enhancement and directivity of the radiation pattern.

Figure 4 shows the near- and far-field radiation of two examples of holographic optical
nanoantenna arrays, which operate at the wavelength of 600 nm. In this case, the
reference signals were respectively plane waves at 15 and 30 degree angle. We have
reported the far-field radiation patterns in Fig. 4(c) for a small aperture opened at the
center of the array, comparing the results with a perfect conducting screen carved by
similar sets of grooves. It is evident how the plasmonic surface plays a major role in
enhancing the overall emitted energy, and not just the directivity, achieving strong
radiation from an ultra-low profile groove array. This enhancement is associated with
surface plasmon polaritons supported by the corrugated plasmonic surface. This
technique may be particularly appealing for realizing such surfaces using optical
interference lithography: by using proper photoresist, sensible to optical wavelengths, it
may be possible to record the required interference pattern and print it lithographically on
a plasmonic surface, to realize in a simple way a holographic nanoantenna array.

A.U.
(a) A.U. (b) (c)

Figure 4 - (a) and (b) Electric field distribution patterns of holographic nanoantenna arrays for 15
and 30 degree radiation, respectively. (c) Calculated far field radiation patterns of the antenna with
different substrates and angles.

To conclude, it is highlighted that the proposed techniques open interesting venues to

tailor and pattern the radiation from optical sources, apertures, as well as the emission
and absorption properties of molecules and energy-harvesting devices. These concepts
may pave the way to exciting applications in imaging, for which these low-profile arrays
may be patterned at the exit of a microscope aperture, or for enhancing and tailoring the
nonlinear properties of nanoparticles and nanogrooves. Our group is currently
investigating these aspects in great detail.

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