Mode-matching for Optical Antennas

TL;DR

This paper develops new design rules for optical antennas at optical frequencies, accounting for material losses and field penetration, leading to a novel plasmonic cavity antenna with improved performance.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical framework combining reciprocity and Poynting's theorem for optical antenna design, addressing limitations of RF-based rules and demonstrating a superior plasmonic cavity antenna.

Findings

Derived new optical-frequency antenna design rules.

Designed a plasmonic cavity antenna with enhanced performance.

Applicable to quantum optics and sensing applications.

Abstract

The emission rate of a point dipole can be strongly increased in presence of a well-designed optical antenna. Yet, optical antenna design is largely based on radio-frequency rules, ignoring e.g.~ohmic losses and non-negligible field penetration in metals at optical frequencies. Here we combine reciprocity and Poynting's theorem to derive a set of optical-frequency antenna design rules for benchmarking and optimizing the performance of optical antennas driven by single quantum emitters. Based on these findings a novel plasmonic cavity antenna design is presented exhibiting a considerably improved performance compared to a reference two-wire antenna. Our work will be useful for the design of high-performance optical antennas and nanoresonators for diverse applications ranging from quantum optics to antenna-enhanced single-emitter spectroscopy and sensing.