Tunnel junctions to generate plasmons and photons

Plasmonics, the use of surface plasmpon polaritons instead of electrons and photons in miniaturized circuits, combine the adbantages of both photonics (high frequency, wide bandwidth operation) and electronics (miniaturization, integration). In order to make plasmonic circuitry operational technologies, we investigated the possibility of fabricating an integrated, electrically-driven nanosource of surface plasmons.

Our nanosource consists of a metal-dielectric-metal tunnel junction. These structures are known for a long time and have been used as radiation sources, but were often abandoned because of their low efficiency. Therefore, we have built structures based on plasmonic nanoantennas in order to enhance this efficiency by 2 orders of magnitude.

The combination of these two elements enables to build an integrated nanosource : our sample is composed of a cylindrical nanoantenna, a thin oxide layer and a metallic electrode. In other words, the tunnel junction is integrated within the nano-antenna structure.

PHD STUDENTS AND POST-DOCS, PAST AND CURRENT MEMBERS OF THE PROJECT

	Elham Fakhrzadeh PhD Student (PhD 2026) elham.fakhrzadeh@institutoptique.fr Phone / Office : +1 33 64 53 33 65 / R2.52
	Dr. Cheng Zhang PhD 2019 - Post-Doc cheng.zhang@institutoptique.fr Phone / Office : +1 33 64 53 33 65 / R2.52 Cheng defended his thesis in May 2019 and stayed in our group as a post-doc now working as a post-doc. His PhD Dissertation : "Excitation électrique de plasmons polaritons de surface par effet tunnel inélastique avec des nanoantennes résonnantes"

RELATED PUBLICATIONS

	Electrical generation of visible surface plasmon polaritons by a nanopillars antenna array The authors : Cheng Zhang, Jean-Paul Hugonin, Anne-Lise Coutrot, Benjamin Vest, Jean-Jacques Greffet DOI : https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0046013 APL Photonics 6, 056102 (2021)
	Antenna Surface Plasmon Emission by Inelastic Tunneling The authors : Cheng Zhang, Jean-Paul Hugonin, Anne-Lise Coutrot, Christophe Sauvan, François Marquier & Jean-Jacques Greffet DOI : 10.1038/s41467-019-12866-3 Nat Commun 10, 4949 (2019)

​

​