Quadruple-enhanced four-wave mixing in nanometer plasmonic hotspots: classical theory and experiments

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that quadruple-enhanced four-wave mixing in nanometer plasmonic hotspots achieves over 10% efficiency at low power, enabling ultra-compact high-speed nonlinear optical devices through combined theory and experiments.

Contribution

It provides the first combined theoretical and experimental demonstration of high-efficiency FWM in nanometer plasmonic hotspots, highlighting potential for nanoscale light manipulation.

Findings

Over 10% efficiency in frequency conversion at nanometer scale

Experimental linewidth broadening of 10% in 100 fs pulses using graphene

Low power consumption of milliwatts for high-efficiency nonlinear processes

Abstract

Efficiency is a critical factor limiting the applications of nonlinear plasmonic devices. We show by theory and experiments that high efficiency four-wave mixing (FWM) is achieved in nanometer size plasmonic hotspots, which open up opportunities for nanoscale light manipulation. First, we present a classical calculation on the efficiency of frequency conversion by quadruple-enhanced FWM for a Kerr nonlinear material loaded in the plasmonic hotspot of a gold nanosphere dimer. The results indicate the viability to achieve over 10% efficiency in a nanometer volume under milliwatts of pump power consumption or less. Next, we present experimental results which show around 10% linewidth broadening of a 100 fs pulsed laser by a monolayer graphene in a gold nanosphere-plane junction. Such a high efficiency, low power, and nanoscale nonlinear process is a promising candidate for making ultra-compact and high-speed nonlinear optical devices.