Evaluation of Moderate Refractive Index Nanoantennas for Enhancing the Photoluminescence Signal of Quantum Dots

TL;DR

This study systematically compares metallic, high, and moderate refractive index nanostructures to optimize quantum dot photoluminescence, revealing moderate index nanoparticles' potential and hybrid structures' superior enhancement capabilities.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive comparison of various nanostructures, highlighting the effectiveness of moderate refractive index nanoparticles and hybrid configurations for quantum dot emission enhancement.

Findings

Moderate refractive index nanoparticles broaden electric and magnetic dipolar resonances.

Hybrid metallic and dielectric nanostructures achieve the highest intensity enhancement.

Hybrid structures optimize both excitation and emission processes.

Abstract

The use of nanostructures to enhance the emission of single-photon sources has withdrawn some attention in last decade due to the development of quantum technologies. In particular, the use of metallic and high refractive index dielectric materials has been proposed. However, the utility of moderate refractive index dielectric nanostructures to achieve more efficient single-photon sources remains unexplored. Here, a systematic comparison of various metallic, high refractive index and moderate refractive index dielectric nanostructures has been performed to optimize the excitation and emission of a CdSe/ZnS single quantum dot at visible spectral region. Several geometries have been evaluated in terms of electric field enhancement and Purcell factor, considering the combination of metallic, high refractive index and moderate refractive index dielectric materials conforming homogeneous and hybrid nanocylinder dimers. Our results demonstrate that moderate refractive index dielectric nanoparticles can enhance the photoluminescence signal of quantum emitters due to their broader electric and magnetic dipolar resonances compared to high refractive index dielectric nanoparticles. However, hybrid combinations of metallic and high refractive index dielectric nanostructures offer the largest intensity enhancement and Purcell factors at the excitation and emission wavelengths of the quantum emitter, respectively. The results of this work may find applications in the development of single-photon sources