External control of the scattering properties of a single optical nanoantenna

Caijin Huang (1) , Alexandre Bouhelier (1) , Johann Berthelot (1) , Gérard Colas Des Francs (1) , Eric Finot (1) , Jean Claude Weeber (1) , Alain Dereux (1) , Serguei Kochtcheev (2) , Anne-Laure Baudrion (2) , Jerome Plain (2) , Renaud Bachelot (2) , Pascal Royer (2) , Gary P. Wiederrecht (3)

1 ICB - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne
2 LNIO - Laboratoire de Nanotechnologie et d'Instrumentation Optique
3 Center for Nanoscale Materials

We present a mechanism to control the scattering properties of individual optical nanoantennas by applying an external electric field. We find that by electrically tuning an anisotropic load medium the scattered intensity becomes voltage-dependent. We also demonstrate that the scattering diagram of the antenna can be externally adjusted. This on-demand command opens up the possibility to tune an antenna without changing its geometrical parameters.

Keywords: E-beam lithography; Fiber optics; Surface plasmon resonance; Charge coupled devices; Elastic scattering; Glass; Nanoparticles; Nematic liquid crystals; Diffraction optics; Dark-field spectroscopy

Domains: Micro and nanotechnologies/Microelectronics; Optics / Photonic

Caijin Huang, Alexandre Bouhelier, Johann Berthelot, Gérard Colas Des Francs, Eric Finot, et al.. External control of the scattering properties of a single optical nanoantenna. Applied Physics Letters, 2010, 96 (14), pp.143116. ⟨10.1063/1.3385155⟩. ⟨hal-02319295⟩