Nonlinear Nanophotonic Systems for Harmonic Generation, Parametric Amplification, Optical Processing and Single-Molecule Detection
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Halas, Naomi J | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Nordlander, Peter J | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Link, Stephan | |
| dc.creator | Zhang, Yu | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2016-04-27T21:58:53Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2016-04-27T21:58:53Z | |
| dc.date.created | 2014-12 | |
| dc.date.issued | 2015-02-19 | |
| dc.date.submitted | December 2014 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2016-04-27T21:58:53Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | Metallic nanoparticles support collective oscillations of conduction-band electrons, in response to light incidences. Such phenomenon is called localized surface plasmons, which confine large electromagnetic fields in sub-wavelength dimensions, enabling the light manipulation at the nanoscale. Plasmonic nanoparticles have established many promising applications, such as infrared photodetections, photothermal generation steam, chemical photocatalysis, cancer therapy and surface-enhanced spectroscopy. More interesting, plasmonic nanostructures could generate strong nonlinear-optical effects by relatively low excitation powers, and have been widely used in different processes like second-harmonic generations (SHG), difference-frequency generation (DFG), third-harmonic generation (THG), optical four-wave mixing (FWM) and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). This thesis will focused on two types of second-order and two types of third-order nonlinear-optical processes, enhanced by artificial plasmonic nanostructures. Firstly, the second-harmonic generation on a single nanocup is studied, and the signal is demonstrated to have increasing intensity as the 3D symmetry of the nanocup is reduced. Then, optical four-wave mixing is generated on a plasmonic nanocluster which supports a coherent oscillation of two Fano resonances. The electric fields from both Fano resonances add coherently resulting in strong fields and correspondingly large signals. This nanocluster has a large color-conversion efficiency, and could be used for building blocks of optical processors that convert two input colors into a third color. Later, one specific application of four-wave mixing, the coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) is studied. By exploiting the unique light harvesting properties of a Fano resonance of a specially designed nano-quadrumer, the surface-enhanced CARS (SECARS) technique amplifies the Raman signals of molecules on the quadrumer by about 100 billion times. This enables the accurate identification of a single molecule with less than 20 atoms. Finally, a plasmon-enhanced optical parametric amplifier (OPA) is designed: A BaTiO3 nanosphere is used as the nonlinear OPA medium; A nanoshell wrapping this nanosphere is used as a triply resonant cavity for all the pump, signal and idler beams; The generated idler beam has a wide tuning range in the near-infrared by changing the delay between the narrowband pump beam and broadband signal beam. This surface-plasmon-enhanced OPA could be an efficient light source working in the infrared regime, with large wavelength tunabilities and nanoscale dimensions easily integrated into the next-generation optoelectronic devices. | |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Zhang, Yu. "Nonlinear Nanophotonic Systems for Harmonic Generation, Parametric Amplification, Optical Processing and Single-Molecule Detection." (2015) Diss., Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/90374">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/90374</a>. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1911/90374 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.rights | Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder. | |
| dc.subject | Nonlinear Optics | |
| dc.subject | Nonlinear Plasmonics | |
| dc.subject | Second-harmonic Generation | |
| dc.subject | Four-wave Mixing | |
| dc.subject | Optical Parametric Amplification | |
| dc.subject | Coherent Raman | |
| dc.title | Nonlinear Nanophotonic Systems for Harmonic Generation, Parametric Amplification, Optical Processing and Single-Molecule Detection | |
| dc.type | Thesis | |
| dc.type.material | Text | |
| thesis.degree.department | Physics and Astronomy | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Natural Sciences | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | Rice University | |
| thesis.degree.level | Doctoral | |
| thesis.degree.name | Doctor of Philosophy |
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