Nonlinear and quantum optics in the presence of plasmonic effects

存在等离子体效应的非线性和量子光学

• 批准号: 312818-2011
• 负责人: Marzlin, KarlPeter
• 金额: $ 1.09万
• 依托单位: St. Francis Xavier University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=571799
• 关键词: Nonlinear; quantum; optics; presence; plasmonic

Light has always been one of our most important tools to study nature and to communicate information. Optical communication is as old as mankind, and microscopes have been used for centuries to explore living organisms. However, it quickly became clear that conventional microscopes cannot resolve structures which are smaller than the wavelength of light - roughly one thousandth of a millimetre. The last three decades have seen remarkable progress in both fields through the invention of the laser, optical fibres, and new designs of optical materials. It is now possible to observe structures that are much smaller than the wavelength of light, and novel materials make optical switching possible: the path of one flash of light can be changed by switching on another light pulse. This phenomenon has been studied, e.g., for the design of an all-optical computer. In our project, we will study optical switching with the weakest possible light pulses, which are called photons. At such low intensities, light behaves very differently from what we are used to. For instance, after two photons have passed through an optical switch, it may happen that the path of the first light pulse depends on whether we try to observe the second pulse or not. Because optical switches work best at high light intensities, this process has not yet been observed in experiments. However, related phenomena are already used by a number of companies to encrypt messages and, during the last ten years, new approaches in the design of optical materials have brought optical switches for photons close to become reality. We will investigate how metal films can be used to build optical switches for photons. It is known that a very thin layer of gold or silver can help to concentrate light on a small area at the metal surface. This phenomenon increases the light intensity at the metal film, which would be useful for optical switching. Because concentrating light on small areas is also useful to increase the resolution of a microscope, we will also employ our ideas to find ways to improve the resolution of special types of microscopes.

光一直是我们研究自然和交流信息的最重要工具之一。光通信与人类一样古老，几个世纪以来一直使用显微镜来探索生物体。然而，人们很快就发现，传统显微镜无法解析小于光波长（大约千分之一毫米）的结构。过去三十年，通过激光、光纤和光学材料新设计的发明，这两个领域都取得了显着的进步。现在可以观察比光波长小得多的结构，并且新型材料使光学切换成为可能：通过切换另一个光脉冲可以改变一次闪光的路径。人们已经对这种现象进行了研究，例如用于全光学计算机的设计。 在我们的项目中，我们将研究使用最弱的光脉冲（称为光子）的光学开关。在如此低的强度下，光的表现与我们习惯的非常不同。例如，在两个光子通过光开关后，第一个光脉冲的路径可能取决于我们是否尝试观察第二个脉冲。由于光开关在高光强度下工作效果最好，因此实验中尚未观察到这一过程。然而，相关现象已经被许多公司用来加密消息，并且在过去十年中，光学材料设计的新方法使光子光学开关接近成为现实。我们将研究如何使用金属薄膜来构建光子光开关。众所周知，非常薄的金或银层可以帮助将光线集中在金属表面的小区域上。这种现象增加了金属膜处的光强度，这对于光开关很有用。由于将光线集中在小区域也有助于提高显微镜的分辨率，因此我们还将运用我们的想法来寻找提高特殊类型显微镜分辨率的方法。