Extreme renormalisations of dimer eigenmodes by strong light–matter coupling

We explore by theoretical means an extreme renormalisation of the eigenmodes of a dimer of dipolar meta-atoms due to strong light–matter interactions. Firstly, by tuning the height of an enclosing photonic cavity, we can lower the energy level of the symmetric 'bright' mode underneath that...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Sturges, Thomas J., Repän, Taavi, Downing, Charles A., Rockstuhl, Carsten, Stobińska, Magdalena
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/367331
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/367331
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Nanophotonics
Strong coupling
Tunable metamaterials
Quantum optics
Descripción
Sumario:We explore by theoretical means an extreme renormalisation of the eigenmodes of a dimer of dipolar meta-atoms due to strong light–matter interactions. Firstly, by tuning the height of an enclosing photonic cavity, we can lower the energy level of the symmetric 'bright' mode underneath that of the anti-symmetric 'dark' mode. This is possible due to the polaritonic nature of the symmetric mode, that shares simultaneously its excitation with the cavity and the dimer. For a heterogeneous dimer, we show that the polariton modes can be smoothly tuned from symmetric to anti-symmetric, resulting in a variable mode localisation from extended throughout the cavity to concentrated around the vicinity of the dimer. In addition, we reveal a critical point where one of the meta-atoms becomes 'shrouded', with no response to a driving electric field, and thus the field re-radiated by the dimer is only that of the other meta-atom. We provide an exact analytical description of the system from first principles, as well as full-wave electromagnetic simulations that show a strong quantitative agreement with the analytical model. Our description is relevant for any physical dimer where dipolar interactions are the dominant mechanism.