NPTEL - Nanotechnology - Nanophotonics (Beyond the Diffraction Limit)

Quantum treatment of the optical near field

R. Ganapathy
Senior Assistant Professor
School Of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
SASTRA University

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Table of Content

1 RECAPTULATION OF THE OPTICAL NEAR FIELD FUNDAMENTALS . 3

2 NANOMETRIC MATTER EXCITATION BY USING FAR-FIELD LIGHT . 7

3 NANOMETRIC MATTER EXCITATION BY USING NEAR-FIELD LIGHT 7

4 UNIDIRECTIONAL ENERGY TRANSFER IN AN OPTICAL NEAR FIELD 10

5 ADDITIONAL READING AND REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

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The fundamentals of the optical near field have been already discussed in detail in
Lecture 04 entitled fundamentals of optical near field of Module 01. This lecture purports
to the quantum treatment of the optical near field.

1 Recaptulation of the optical near field fundamentals

Fig. 1: Optical near field with the electric lines of force.

The fundamentals of the optical near field can be summarized as follows:

When a nanoparticle, whose radius is very much smaller than the wavelength of light,
is illuminated with conventional propagating light, electric dipoles are induced.

In addition to the free photons, an independent set of photons are also emitted from
the electrons which are re-absorbed by the nanoparticle within a short duration and
remain in the proximity of the electrons constituting the nanoparticle and are called
the virtual photons or dressed photons.

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Fig. 2: The nutation process and the subsequent dissipation for the paired nanoparticles.

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Fig. 3: Nanometric system and the macroscopic system.

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Fig. 4: The relevant nanometric system and the irrelevant macroscopic system.

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As the dimension of the nanoparticle is much smaller than the wavelength of the
incident light, the alignment of the electric dipoles does not depend on the spatial
phase of the incident light.

The dressed photon, in principle, can be detected only if the second nanoparticle
is placed close to and within the vicinity of the first nanoparticle engulfed by the
dressed photon cloud.

In principle, both the relevant nanometric subsystem and the irrelevant macroscopic
subsystem can be considered as two isolates subsystem. One main point that is to be
noted is that the magnitudes of the effective interaction energy between the various
constituents of the nanometric subsystem are controlled by the macroscopic subsys-
tem.

The above mentioned scenario are portrayed in Figures 1-4.

2 Nanometric matter excitation by using far-field light

A nanometric system comprising of two nanometric objects A1 and A2 having two identical
excitation levels, considered. The above mentioned nanometric system is confined to an
area which is much smaller than the wavelength of light. Hence when such a nanometric
system is illuminated with conventional propagating light, both the nanometric objects A1
and A2 would go to the excited state simultaneously. Let |gi1 and |ei1 denote the crystal
ground state and the excitation state for the nanometric object A1 . Also, let |gi2 and |ei2
denote the crystal ground state and the excitation state for the nanometric object A2 . There
is no provision for detecting the matter excited states |ei1 and |ei2 independently in each
of the nanometric objects A1 and A2 with regard to the far field. This is due to the fact that
the two nanometric objects are excited simultaneously and uniformly. Thus for the above
mentioned nanometric system that is illuminated by conventional propagating light, the one
exciton state in which a single exciton can exist can only be represented as
1
|Si = (|ei1 |gi2 + |gi1 |ei2 ), (2.1)
2
which is a symmetric state. The above mentioned scenario is portrayed in Figure 5.

3 Nanometric matter excitation by using near-field light

Let the same nanometric system comprising of two nanometric objects A1 and A2 be illu-
minated by an optical near field. This can be done by setting up an optical near field probe
comprising of a nanometric aperture, an optical fiber probe and a single molecule which
can be considered as a detector. The advantage of this set up is that each nanometric object
can be illuminated in a distinct and selective manner. Moreover, due to the optical near
field, a locally excited state can be created. In addition to this, resonant optical near field
interaction takes place between the two nanometric objects A1 and A2 . Thus the optical near

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Fig. 5: Nanometric matter excitation by using far-field light.

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field interaction overcomes the difficulty in identifying the excited state of each nanometric
object in a self consistent manner. Now the two excited state can be represented as
1 1
|Si = (|ei1|gi2 + |gi1 |ei2 ) and|Ai = (|ei1 |gi2 |gi1 |ei2 ). (3.1)
2 2
|Si represents the symmetric state and |Ai represents the anti-symmetric state. Hence one
can write,
1 1
|ei1 |gi2 = (|Si + |Ai) and|gi2|ei1 = (|Si |Ai). (3.2)
2 2
This brings out the major difference between the optical far-field and the near-field exci-
tations in an optical far field, there is only one state which is symmetric in nature. In the
case of an optical near filed, a coupled state comprising of symmetric as well as an anti-
symmetric state exists. The anti-symmetric state is optically inactive for the far field but is
optically active for the near field. It is solely due to the presence of this anti-symmetric state
that forbidden transitions can occur for the optical near field. Hence novel nanophotonic
devices can be fabricated by using the concept of optical near field. The above mentioned

Fig. 6: Nanometric matter excitation by using near-field light.

scenario is portrayed in Figure 6.

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4 Unidirectional energy transfer in an optical near field

Unidirectional energy transfer can be achieved in an optical near field when the nanomet-
ric system comprising of the nanometric objects undergoes relaxation process between the
various discrete energy levels. For example, let the nanometric system comprise of two
nanometric objects A and B such that the nanometric object A is a two-level system con-
sisting of the ground state |giA and the excited state |eiA having frequency 2 . Also let
the nanometric object B be a three-level system comprising of the ground state |giB and
the excited states |e1 iB and |e2 iB . Let the state |e1 iB have a frequency 1 and that of |e2 iB
has frequency 2 . As |eiA and |e2 iB have the same frequency 2 , resonant coupling takes
place between the two nanometric objects. As a result, exciton goes on hopping from the
nanometric object A to nanometric object B back and forth, leading to nutation. If the ex-
citation can be dropped from |e2 iB to |e1 iB by means of fast radiative relaxation, resonant
coupling no longer occurs between |eiA and |e2 iB . As a result, the exciton gets confined to
the nanometric object B, thereby guaranteeing unidirectional energy transfer. It is based on
this concept that novel nanophotonic switches are being fabricated by the Ohtsu research
group.

5 Additional reading and references

1. M. Ohtsu, K. Kobayashi, T. Kawazoe and T. Yatsui, Principles of Nanophotonics
(CRC Press, New York, 2008).

2. M. Ohtsu (Ed.), Progress in Nanophotonics 1 (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2011).

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