The interactions between light and matter are present everywhere around us, and since Maxwell’s work, we understand them in a much better way. However, we are constantly discovering new facets of these interactions. In particular, since the revolution in nanofabrication techniques and ever-increasing computing capabilities, we can now design and fabricate objects of nanometric dimensions with totally new optical properties that are not possible with macroscopic materials. This revolution has led to new scientific and technological applications, the first of which were developed in our laboratories only a few years ago.
In this presentation, we will see how by nanostructuring matter, in particular plasmonic metals or dielectrics with high optical indices, we can create resonant nanostructures allowing the increase, in the near field, of the electric and magnetic optical fields1-4. In particular, we’ll see how new computing tools may help us with that (e.g. fig.1). We will then see how these enhanced optical fields, when coupled to electric or magnetic quantum emitters, manipulate their excitation and emission5-8. In particular, I will present how the excitation of fluorescent molecules in the near field depends on their orientation1, or how the presence of optical nanostructures modifies the electric or magnetic local density of states in the vicinity of quantum emitters7. Finally, I will show how manipulating of electric and magnetic fields at the nanoscale allows obtaining new physical effects such as the generation of stationary magnetic fields optically induced9 or the study of the interaction between chiral light and and achiral matter, opening the way to entirely new applications.
Fig. 1. Illustration of a photonic antenna designed by a genetic algorithm to increase the optical magnetic field.
Mathieu Mivelle is a French researcher working for the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) at Sorbonne University in Paris. His research interests include the study of light-matter interactions at the nanoscale. In particular, he is interested in the coupling between the magnetic part of light and matter via optical nanostructures, as well as in the creation of new phenomena and couplings such as the creation of optically induced stationary magnetic fields or the enhancement of interactions between chiral light and chiral matter.
Website : https://sites.google.com/view/mathieumivelle
Bibliography
1. Mivelle, M.; van Zanten, T. S.; Neumann, L.; van Hulst, N. F.; Garcia-Parajo, M. F., Ultrabright Bowtie Nanoaperture Antenna Probes Studied by Single Molecule Fluorescence. Nano. Lett. 2012, 12 (11), 5972-5978.
2. Mivelle, M.; van Zanten, T. S.; Garcia-Parajo, M. F., Hybrid photonic antennas for subnanometer multicolor localization and nanoimaging of single molecules. Nano. Lett. 2014, 14 (8), 4895-4900.
3. Bidault, S.; Mivelle, M.; Bonod, N., Dielectric nanoantennas to manipulate solid-state light emission. J. Appl. Phys. 2019, 126 (9), 094104.
4. Bonod, N.; Bidault, S.; Burr, G. W.; Mivelle, M., Evolutionary Optimization of All‐Dielectric Magnetic Nanoantennas. Advanced Optical Materials 2019, 7 (10), 1900121.
5. Mivelle, M.; Grosjean, T.; Burr, G. W.; Fischer, U. C.; Garcia-Parajo, M. F., Strong Modification of Magnetic Dipole Emission through Diabolo Nanoantennas. ACS Photonics 2015, 2 (8), 1071-1076.
6. Ernandes, C.; Lin, H.-J.; Mortier, M.; Gredin, P.; Mivelle, M.; Aigouy, L., Exploring the magnetic and electric side of light through plasmonic nanocavities. Nano. Lett. 2018, 18 (8), 5098-5103.
7. Sanz-Paz, M.; Ernandes, C.; Esparza, J. U.; Burr, G. W.; van Hulst, N. F.; Maitre, A. s.; Aigouy, L.; Gacoin, T.; Bonod, N.; Garcia-Parajo, M. F.; Bidault, S.; Mivelle, M., Enhancing Magnetic Light Emission with All-Dielectric Optical Nanoantennas. Nano. Lett. 2018, 18 (6), 3481-3487.
8. Sanz-Paz, M.; Wenger, J.; van Hulst, N. F.; Mivelle, M.; Garcia-Parajo, M. F., Nanoscale control of single molecule Förster resonance energy transfer by a scanning photonic nanoantenna. Nanophotonics 2020, 1 (ahead-of-print).
9. Yang, X.; Mou, Y.; Gallas, B.; Maitre, A.; Coolen, L.; Mivelle, M., Tesla-Range Femtosecond Pulses of Stationary Magnetic Field, Optically Generated at the Nanoscale in a Plasmonic Antenna. ACS Nano 2021.
Sorbonne Université/ INSP