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Optical Fano resonance of an individual semiconductor nanostructure

Nature Materials volume 13, pages 471–475 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Fano resonances with a characteristic asymmetric line shape can be observed in light scattering, transmission and reflection spectra of resonant optical systems1. They result from interference between direct and indirect, resonance-assisted pathways. In the nanophotonics field, Fano effects have been observed in a wide variety of systems, including metallic nanoparticle assemblies2, metamaterials2,3 and photonic crystals4,5. Their unique properties find extensive use in applications, including optical filtering, polarization selectors, sensing, lasers, modulators and nonlinear optics6,7,8,9,10,11. We report on the observation of a Fano resonance in a single semiconductor nanostructure, opening up opportunities for their use in active photonic devices. We also show that Fano-resonant semiconductor nanostructures afford the intriguing opportunity to simultaneously measure the far-field scattering response and the near-field energy storage by extracting photogenerated charge. Together they can provide a complete experimental characterization of this type of resonance.

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Figure 1: Near and far-field characterization of Fano resonances in a high-index semiconductor nanostructure.
Figure 2: Theoretical study of the Fano resonance observed from a Si nanostripe under different illumination conditions.
Figure 3: Measurement and simulation of the scattering spectra of Si nanostripes.
Figure 4: Measured absorption spectra from a Si nanostripe for different illumination conditions.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial support from the Global Climate and Energy Project at Stanford University and the Department of Energy Grant No. DE-FG07ER46426

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA

    Pengyu Fan & Mark L. Brongersma

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA

    Zongfu Yu & Shanhui Fan

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  1. Pengyu Fan
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  2. Zongfu Yu
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  3. Shanhui Fan
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  4. Mark L. Brongersma
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Contributions

P.F., Z.Y., S.F. and M.L.B. conceived the ideas for this paper. P.F. and Z.Y. designed, fabricated and simulated the device structures. P.F. wrote the initial draft of the manuscript. S.F. and M.L.B. supervised the project.

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Correspondence to Pengyu Fan or Mark L. Brongersma.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Fan, P., Yu, Z., Fan, S. et al. Optical Fano resonance of an individual semiconductor nanostructure. Nature Mater 13, 471–475 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3927

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