Coherent control of the optical absorption in a plasmonic lattice coupled to a luminescent layer

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates phase-controlled enhancement and suppression of optical absorption in a plasmonic lattice coupled with a luminescent layer, enabling efficient manipulation of light-matter interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a method for coherent control of optical absorption using phase-controlled incident waves in a plasmonic-luminescent system, reducing metallic dissipation.

Findings

Phase-dependent modulation of optical absorption achieved.

Significant reduction in metallic dissipation.

Relation between incident wave phase and resonance excitation clarified.

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate the coherent control, i.e., phase-dependent enhancement and suppression, of the optical absorption in an array of metallic nanoantennas covered by a thin lu- minescent layer. The coherent control is achieved by using two collinear, counter-propagating and phase-controlled incident waves with wavelength matching the absorption spectrum of dye molecules coupled to the array. Symmetry arguments shed light on the relation between the relative phase of the incident waves and the excitation efficiency of the optical resonances of the system. This coherent control is associated with a phase-dependent distribution of the electromagnetic near-fields in the structure which enables a significant reduction of the unwanted dissipation in the metallic structures.