Electron-beam-driven collective-mode metamaterial light source

• Main Authors: Adamo, Giorgio, Angelis, F. De, Ou, J. Y., So, J. K., Jenkins, S. D., Ruostekoski, J., Fabrizio, Enzo Di, MacDonald, Kevin F., Zheludev, Nikolay I.
• Other Authors: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/95047; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/9394
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

We demonstrate experimentally that the energy from a highly localized free-electron-beam excitation can be converted via a planar plasmonic metamaterial to a low-divergence free-space light beam. This emission, which emanates from a collectively oscillating coupled metamolecule nanoantenna ensemble much larger in size than the initial excitation, is distinctly different from cathodoluminescence and bears some similarity with laser light. It offers a novel, flexible paradigm for the development of scalable, threshold-free light sources.