Photothermal Effect in Plasmonic Nanostructures and its Applications

Abstract:   Plasmonic resonances are characterized by enhanced optical near field and subwavelength power confinement. Light is not only scattered but also simultaneously absorbed in the metal nanostructures. With proper structural design, plasmonic-enhanced light absorption can generate nanoscopically confined heat power in metallic nanostructures, which can even be temporally modulated by varying the pump light. These intrinsic characters of plasmonic nanostructures are investigated in depth in this thesis for a range of materials and nanophotonic applications.  The theoretical basis for the photothermal phenomenon, including light absorption, heat generation, and heat conduction, is coherently summarized and implemented numerically based on finite-element method. Our analysis favours disk-pair and particle/dielectric-spacer/metal-film nanostructures for their high optical absorbance, originated from their antiparallel dipole resonances.  Experiments were done towards two specific application directions. First, the manipulation of the morphology and crystallinity of Au nanoparticles (NPs) in plasmonic absorbers by photothermal effect is demonstrated. In particular, with a nanosecond-pulsed light, brick-shaped Au NPs are reshaped to spherical NPs with a smooth surface; while with a 10-second continuous wave laser, similar brick-shaped NPs can be annealed to faceted nanocrystals. A comparison of the two cases reveals that pumping intensity and exposure time both play key roles in determining the morphology and crystallinity of the annealed NPs.  Second, the attempt is made to utilize the high absorbance and localized heat generation of the metal-insulator-metal (MIM) absorber in Si thermo-optic switches for achieving all-optical switching/routing with a small switching power and a fast transient response. For this purpose, a numerical study of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer integrated with MIM nanostrips is performed. Experimentally, a Si disk resonator and a ring-resonator-based add-drop filter, both integrated with MIM film absorbers, are fabricated and characterized. They show that good thermal conductance between the absorber and the Si light-guiding region is vital for a better switching performance.  Theoretical and experimental methodologies presented in the thesis show the physics principle and functionality of the photothermal effect in Au nanostructures, as well as its application in improving the morphology and crystallinity of Au NPs and miniaturized all-optical Si photonic switching devices.