Efficient, designable, and broad-bandwidth optical extinction via aspect-ratio-tailored silver nanodisks

TL;DR

This paper presents a computational and experimental approach to designing silver nanodisks with tailored aspect ratios that achieve broad-band optical extinction, surpassing traditional structures in efficiency and approaching fundamental scattering limits.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for designing nanodisks with optimized aspect ratios for broad-band optical extinction, combining computational design with experimental synthesis.

Findings

Nanodisks are 2-10 times more efficient in light absorption and scattering than common structures.

Broadband extinction per volume approaches theoretical limits across visible wavelengths.

Experimental results closely match computational predictions, validating the design approach.

Abstract

Subwavelength resonators, ranging from single atoms to metallic nanoparticles, typically exhibit a narrow-bandwidth response to optical excitations. We computationally design and experimentally synthesize tailored distributions of silver nanodisks to extinguish light over broad and varied frequency windows. We show that metallic nanodisks are two-to-ten-times more efficient in absorbing and scattering light than common structures, and can approach fundamental limits to broadband scattering for subwavelength particles. We measure broadband extinction per volume that closely approaches theoretical predictions over three representative visible-range wavelength windows, confirming the high efficiency of nanodisks and demonstrating the collective power of computational design and experimental precision for developing new photonics technologies.