Plasmonic Anti-Hermitian Coupling for Controlling Light at the Nanoscale

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how anti-Hermitian coupling in plasmonic systems enables the spatial control of light at the nanoscale, allowing individual excitation of closely packed antennas otherwise indistinguishable.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of using anti-Hermitian coupling in plasmonics for nanoscale light manipulation, a novel approach in the field.

Findings

Closely packed plasmonic antennas can be individually excited.

Anti-Hermitian coupling enables control of light at sub-wavelength scales.

Antennas separated by only λ/15 can be distinguished and excited independently.

Abstract

Open quantum systems consisting of coupled bound and continuum states have been studied in a variety of physical systems, particularly within the scope of nuclear, atomic and molecular physics. In the open systems, the effects of the continuum decay channels are accounted for by indirect non-Hermitian couplings among the quasi-bound states. Here we explore anti-Hermitian coupling in a plasmonic system for spatially manipulating light on the nano-scale. We show that by utilizing the anti-Hermitian coupling, plasmonic antennas closely packed within only {\lambda}/15 separations can be individually excited from the far field, which are otherwise indistinguishable from each other.