Assembling optically active nanoscale elements by PLD: from light emission to plasmonics

Abstract

The complexity of photonic devices is increasing at the same time that its size are decreasing. The current challenge for the development of the next generation devices is to develop materials in the nanoscale that have functionalities such as emission, switching/processing and detection of light and will operate in a wide wavelength range, from the UV to the NIR. Therefore it is necessary to develop techcniques and methodologies that allow to assemble active nanoscale material structures in a plataform suitable for nanophotonics. In this talk I will present the methodology based on Pulsed Laser Deposition that we have developed in our group in order to build optically active materials based in the concept of embedding nano-scale objects into thin film oxides on silicon for CMOS compatible devices. I will show that by choosing the nature/composition, morphology and size of these nanoscale objects in a suitable manner thin films with specific optical responses can be obtained. In this presentation I will show and discuss some examples of our recent work that include efficient nano-hybrid emitters in the near-infrared (Er-doped), wide band emitters in the visible (Eu-doped), and conventional (Ag-based) and non-conventional (Bi-based) plasmonic stuctures suitable for operation in the visible.