Composite Nano-Antenna Integrated With Quantum Cascade Laser

Author

Dey, Dibyendu ; Kohoutek, J. ; Gelfand, Ryan M. ; Bonakdar, Alireza ; Mohseni, Hooman

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL, USA

Volume

22

Issue

21

fYear

2010

Firstpage

1580

Lastpage

1582

Abstract

Exploiting optical nano-antennas to boost the near-field confinement within a small volume can increase the limit of molecular detection by an order of magnitude. We present a novel antenna design based on Au-SiO₂-Au single nanorod integrated on the facet of a quantum cascade laser operating in the midinfrared region of the optical spectrum. Finite-difference time-domain simulations showed that for sandwiched dielectric thicknesses within the range of 20-30 nm, peak optical intensity at the top of the antenna ends is 500 times greater than the incident field intensity. The device was fabricated using focused ion beam milling. Apertureless midinfrared near-field scanning optical microscopy showed that the device can generate a spatially confined spot within a nanometric size about 12 times smaller than the operating wavelength. Such high intensity, hot spot locations can be used in increasing photon interaction with bio-molecules for sensing applications.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; biosensors; dielectric-loaded antennas; finite difference time-domain analysis; gallium arsenide; gold; indium compounds; integrated optics; nanophotonics; near-field scanning optical microscopy; optical design techniques; optical fabrication; quantum cascade lasers; silicon compounds; Au-SiO₂-Au; InAlAs-InGaAs; antenna design; biomolecules; composite nanoantenna; finite-difference time-domain simulations; focused ion beam milling; integrated single nanorod; midinfrared near-field scanning optical microscopy; midinfrared optical spectrum; molecular detection; near-field confinement; optical fabrication; photon interaction; quantum cascade laser; sensing applications; size 20 nm to 30 nm; Antennas; Biomedical optical imaging; Optical device fabrication; Optical imaging; Optical scattering; Optical sensors; Quantum cascade lasers; Bio-sensing; field enhancement; near-field scanning microscopy; plasmonic antenna; quantum cascade laser (QCL);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2010.2073459

Filename

5565402