# Directional Emission from Dielectric Leaky-Wave Nanoantennas

## TL;DR

This paper demonstrates highly directional, broadband emission from active dielectric leaky-wave nanoantennas made of Hafnium dioxide, using quantum dots as local light sources, offering a low-loss alternative to plasmonic nanoantennas.

## Contribution

It introduces a new design of dielectric leaky-wave nanoantennas that achieve directional emission at optical frequencies, overcoming losses associated with metallic plasmonic antennas.

## Key findings

- Achieved highly directional emission patterns across different antenna sizes.
- Demonstrated broadband operation of dielectric nanoantennas.
- Validated the design with Fourier imaging measurements.

## Abstract

An important source of innovation in nanophotonics is the idea to scale down known radio wave technologies to the optical regime. One thoroughly investigated example of this approach are metallic nanoantennas which employ plasmonic resonances to couple localized emitters to selected far-field modes. While metals can be treated as perfect conductors in the microwave regime, their response becomes Drude-like at optical frequencies. Thus, plasmonic nanoantennas are inherently lossy. Moreover, their resonant nature requires precise control of the antenna geometry. A promising way to circumvent these problems is the use of broadband nanoantennas made from low-loss dielectric materials. Here, we report on highly directional emission from active dielectric leaky-wave nanoantennas made of Hafnium dioxide. Colloidal semiconductor quantum dots deposited in the nanoantenna feed gap serve as a local light source. The emission patterns of active nanoantennas with different sizes are measured by Fourier imaging. We find for all antenna sizes a highly directional emission, underlining the broadband operation of our design.