Broad-Band Near-Infrared Plasmonic Nanoantennas for Higher Harmonic Generation

We propose a broad-band near-infrared trapezoidal plasmonic nanoantenna, analyze it numerically using finite integration and difference time domain techniques, and explain qualitatively its performance via a multidipolar scenario as well as a conformal transformation. The plasmonic nanoantenna reported here intercepts the incoming light as if it were of cross-sectional area larger than double its actual physical size for a 1500 nm bandwidth expanding from the near-infrared to the visible spectrum. Within this bandwidth, it also confines the incoming light to its center with more than 1 order of magnitude field enhancement. This wide-band operation is achieved due to the overlapping of the different dipole resonances excited across the nanoantenna. We further demonstrate that the broad-band field enhancement leads to efficient third harmonic generation in a simplified wire trapezoidal geometry when a Kerr medium is introduced, due to the lightning rod effect at the fundamental and the Purcell effect at the induced third harmonic.