0000000000054498
AUTHOR
David Peyrade
On chip shapeable optical tweezers
International audience; Particles manipulation with optical forces is known as optical tweezing. While tweezing in free space with laser beams was established in the 1980s, integrating the optical tweezers on a chip is a challenging task. Recent experiments with plasmonic nanoantennas, microring resonators, and photonic crystal nanocavities have demonstrated optical trapping. However, the optical field of a tweezer made of a single microscopic resonator cannot be shaped. So far, this prevents from optically driven micromanipulations. Here we propose an alternative approach where the shape of the optical trap can be tuned by the wavelength in coupled nanobeam cavities. Using these shapeable …
Addressing and imaging high optical index dielectric ridges in the optical near field
Experimental observation of light coupling between ${\mathrm{TiO}}_{2}$ integrated waveguides of subwavelength cross section and pure three-dimensional evanescent light fields is reported. This near-field optical phenomenon is produced by controlling the location of the focusing of a laser beam totally reflected at the surface of the sample. The phenomenon is observed in direct space with a photon scanning tunneling microscope. Dielectric ridges several tens of micrometers long have been efficiently excited with this technique. Upon excitation, the extremities of the linear dielectric wires display intense light spots localized both inside and around the ridge. For ridge lengths up to $30\e…
Near-field observation of evanescent light wave coupling in subwavelength optical waveguides
International audience; We report the observation, in the range of visible frequencies, of the coupling of light into integrated waveguides of subwavelength cross-sections together with a subwavelength detection at the output, of such guides. Coupling in is produced by controlling the focusing of a laser beam totally reflected at the surface of the sample. Several tens of micrometres long dielectric ridges have been efficiently excited with this technique. The phenomenon is observed in direct space by a Photon Scanning Tunneling Microscope which also allows to test the principle of detection in a subwavelength volume.
Spatially resolved photonic transfer through mesoscopic heterowires
We report spatially resolved observations of light wave propagation along high refraction index dielectric heterowires lying on a transparent substrate. The heterowires are made of linear chains of closely packed mesoscopic particles. The optical excitation of these heterowires is performed through channel waveguides featuring submicrometer transverse cross sections. Both numerical simulations and near-field optical images, recorded with a photon scanning tunneling microscope, agree to show that, at visible frequencies, tuning the periodicity of the heterowires controls the propagation length within a range of several micrometers.
Simultaneous observation of light localization and confinement in near-field optics
We report on the observation, in direct space, of both light localization and confinement effects near lithographically designed structures. The sample is observed in the optical near-field zone with a Photon Scanning Tunneling Microscope (PSTM). Several patterns composed of a few periods of TiO2 dots, arranged as a hexagonal lattice, have been investigated. When the central dot of the pattern is removed, a phenomenon of light localization above the vacancy can be observed in the PSTM image. The occurrence of this phenomenon can be related to the variation of the electromagnetic local density of state.
Optical analogy to electronic quantum corrals.
We describe full multiple-scattering calculations of localized surface photonic states set up by lithographically designed nanostructures made of a finite number of dielectric pads deposited on a planar surface. The method is based on a numerical solution of the dyadic Dyson's equation. When the pads are arranged to form a closed circle, we find field patterns that look like the electronic charge density recently observed above quantum corrals. We propose two experimental techniques that could be used to observe these electromagnetic modes in direct space.
Extraordinary tuning of a nanocavity by a near-field probe
Abstract We report here an experimental observation of an extraordinary near-field interaction between a local probe and a small-volume solid-state nanocavity. We directly compare the normally observed near-field interaction regime driven by the perturbation theory and then report the extraordinary interaction regime. Subsequently, we show that the cavity can take up to 2 min to recover from this interaction after removing the probe and that leads to an extraordinary blue-shift of the cavity resonance wavelength (∼15 nm) which depends on the probe motion above the cavity and not the position. The reasons for this effect are not fully understood yet but we try to give some explanations.
Assembly of microparticles by optical trapping with a photonic crystal nanocavity
International audience; In this work, we report the auto-assembly experiments of micrometer sized particles by optical trapping in the evanescent field of a photonic crystal nanocavity. The nanocavity is inserted inside an optofluidic cell designed to enable the real time control of the nanoresonator transmittance as well as the real time visualization of the particles motion in the vicinity of the nanocavity. It is demonstrated that the optical trap above the cavity enables the assembly of multiple particles in respect of different stable conformations.
Optofluidic taming of a colloidal dimer with a silicon nanocavity
International audience; We report here the optical trapping of a heterogeneous colloidal dimer above a photonic crystal nanocavity used as an on-chip optical tweezer. The trapped dimer consists of a cluster of two dielectric microbeads of different sizes linked by van der Waals forces. The smallest bead, 1 μm in diameter, is observed to be preferentially trapped by the nanotweezer, leaving the second bead untrapped. The rotational nature of the trapped dimer Brownian motion is first evidenced. Then, in the presence of a fluid flow, control of its orientation and rotation is achieved. The whole system is found to show high rotational degrees of freedom, thereby acting as an effective flow-se…
Coupling evanescently low loss Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) ridge waveguides(WGs) including high Q nanocavities: For light control
We have fabricated a multislotted optical nanoresonator with several spatial field distributions which are all addressable by the wavelength. The reported structure consists in an array of evanescently coupled single mode photonic crystal nanocavities. By using a scanning near-field optical microscope, we quantify the morphology of the different optical mode volumes and show that they consist in grids of light confined at the subwavelength scaleOver the last recent years, optical microcavities have proven their ability to slow down, control and even trap light inside an ultra small volume. Several approaches have led to quality factor (Q) records allowing to reach high photon life-time for …
A near-field actuated optical nanocavity
International audience; We demonstrate here that switching and tuning of a nanocavity resonance can be achieved by approaching a sub-micrometer tip inside its evanescent near-field. The resonance energy is tuned over a wide spectral range (Δλ/λ~10-3) without significant deterioration of the cavity peak-transmittance and of the resonance linewidth. Such a result is achieved by taking benefits from a weak tip-cavity interaction regime in which the tip behaves as a pure optical path length modulator.