Optical slot antennas and their applications to photonic devices
Journal
Nanophotonics - De Gruyter
Date
2018.09.28
Abstract
We present optical slot antennas and their applications to photonic devices. We show that metallic nanoslots have the properties of slot antenna by measuring transmission spectra and far-field radiation patterns, and they can be regarded as magnetic dipoles in optical region physically. Additionally, we can make the directional radiations from optical slot antennas by adapting the geometry of radio frequency Yagi-Uda antenna and adding auxiliary elements called as reflectors and directors to single slot antenna properly. As the applications of optical slot antennas, we present two cases. One is the integration of slot antennas with plasmonic waveguides. This combination can be used as a basic unit for optical interconnection to free-space and plasmonic via in multilayered plasmonic structures. The other is the integration of slot antenna with the electrode of light emitting diodes. Using slot antennas, we can control the polarizations and directions of emissions from light emitting diodes. Besides two cases, we expect that optical slot antennas have possibilities of application to various photonic devices and can be essential elements in integrated photonic circuits with nanometer scales for the future.