Electrostatic Control over Optically Pumped Hot Electrons in Optical Gap Antennas

Adrian Agreda (1) , Sviatlana Viarbitskaya (1) , Igor V Smetanin (2) , Alexander V Uskov (2) , Gérard Colas Des Francs (1) , Alexandre Bouhelier (1)

1 ICB - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne
2 LPI RAS - P. N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences [Moscow]

We investigate the influence of a static electric field on the incoherent nonlinear response of an unloaded electrically contacted nanoscale optical gap antenna. Upon excitation by a tightly focused near-infrared femtosecond laser beam, a transient elevated temperature of the electronic distribution results in a broadband emission of nonlinear photoluminescence (N-PL). We demonstrate a modulation of the yield at which driving photons are frequency up-converted by means of an external control of the electronic surface charge density. We show that the electron temperature and consequently the N-PL intensity can be enhanced or reduced depending on the command polarity and the strength of the control static field. A modulation depth larger than 100% is observed for activation voltages of a few volts.

Mots clés: Metrics & More Article Recommendations nonlinear photoluminescence; nonlinear plasmonics; hot electrons; surface charge density; optical gap antennas

Domaines: Science non linéaire [physics]; Matière Condensée [cond-mat]

Adrian Agreda, Sviatlana Viarbitskaya, Igor V Smetanin, Alexander V Uskov, Gérard Colas Des Francs, et al.. Electrostatic Control over Optically Pumped Hot Electrons in Optical Gap Antennas. ACS photonics, 2020, 7 (8), pp.2153 - 2162. ⟨10.1021/acsphotonics.0c00623⟩. ⟨hal-03025484⟩