Abstract
We investigate the influence of the diameter and the filling factor of randomly arranged ZnO nanoneedles on the multiple scattering and localization of light in disordered dielectrics. Coherent, ultra-broadband second-harmonic (SH) microscopy is used to probe the spatial localization of light in representative nm-sized ZnO arrays of needles. We observe strong fluctuations of the SH intensity inside different ZnO needle geometries. Comparison of the SH intensity distributions with predictions based on a one-parameter scaling model indicate that SH fluctuations can be taken as a quantitative measure for the degree of localization. Interestingly, the strongest localization signatures are found for densely packed arrays of thin needles with diameters in the range of only 30 nm range, despite the small scattering cross section of these needles. FDTD simulations indicate that in this case coupling of electric near-fields between neighbouring needles governs the localization.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
E. Abrahams (ed.), 50 years of anderson localization (World Scientific, Singapore, 2010), p. 597. http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/7663
C. Rockstuhl, F. Lederer, K. Bittkau, T. Beckers, R. Carius, The impact of intermediate reflectors on light absorption in tandem solar cells with randomly textured surfaces. Appl. Phys. Lett. 94, 211101–211103 (2009)
M.A. Green, Lambertian light trapping in textured solar cells and light-emitting diodes: analytical solutions. Prog. Photovolt. Res. Appl. 10, 235–241 (2002)
A. Polman, H.A. Atwater, Photonic design principles for ultrahigh-efficiency photovoltaics. Nat. Mat. 11, 174–177 (2012)
S. Nie, S.R. Emory, Probing single molecules and single nanoparticles by surface-enhanced Raman scattering. Science 275, 1102–1106 (1997)
J. Steidtner, B. Pettinger, Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and microscopy on single dye molecules with 15 nm resolution. Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 236101 (2008)
P.-E. Wolf, G. Maret, Weak localization and coherent backscattering of photons in disordered media. Phys. Rev. Lett. 55, 2696 (1985)
D.S. Wiersma, P. Bartolini, A. Lagendijk, R. Righini, Localization of light in a disordered medium. Nature 390, 671–673 (1997)
M.P.V. Albada, A. Lagendijk, Observation of weak localization of light in a random medium. Phys. Rev. Lett. 55, 2692 (1985)
H. Cao, Y.G. Zhao, H.C. Ong, R.P.H. Chang, Far-field characteristics of random lasers. Phys. Rev. B 59, 15107–15111 (1999)
J. Fallert, R.J.B. Dietz, J. Sartor, D. Schneider, C. Klingshirn, H. Kalt, Co-existence of strongly and weakly localized random laser modes. Nat. Photon. 3, 279–282 (2009)
D.S. Wiersma, The physics and applications of random lasers. Nat. Phys. 4, 359–367 (2008)
X. Wu, W. Fang, A. Yamilov, A.A. Chabanov, A.A. Asatryan, L.C. Botten, H. Cao, Random lasing in weakly scattering systems. Phys. Rev. A 74, 053812 (2006)
S.I. Bozhevolnyi, J. Beermann, V. Coello, Direct observation of localized second-harmonic enhancement in random metal nanostructures. Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 197403 (2003)
C. Anceau, S. Brasselet, J. Zyss, P. Gadenne, Local second-harmonic generation enhancement on gold nanostructures probed by two-photon microscopy. Opt. Lett. 28, 713–715 (2003)
M.I. Stockman, D.J. Bergman, C. Anceau, S. Brasselet, J. Zyss, Enhanced second-harmonic generation by metal surfaces with nanoscale roughness: nanoscale dephasing, depolarization, and correlations. Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 057402 (2004)
S. Gresillon, L. Aigouy, A.C. Boccara, J.C. Rivoal, X. Quelin, C. Desmarest, P. Gadenne, V.A. Shubin, A.K. Sarychev, V.M. Shalaev, Experimental observation of localized optical excitations in random metal-dielectric films. Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 4520–4523 (1999)
L. Sapienza, H. Thyrrestrup, S. Stobbe, P.D. Garcia, S. Smolka, P. Lodahl, Cavity quantum electrodynamics with Anderson-localized modes. Science 327, 1352–1355 (2010)
C. Caer, X. Le Roux, E. Cassan, Enhanced localization of light in slow wave slot photonic crystal waveguides. Opt. Lett. 37, 3660–3662 (2012)
S. Stützer, Y.V. Kartashov, V.A. Vysloukh, A. Tünnermann, S. Nolte, M. Lewenstein, L. Torner, A. Szameit, Anderson cross-localization. Opt. Lett. 37, 1715–1717 (2012)
C. Conti, A. Fratalocchi, Dynamic light diffusion, three-dimensional Anderson localization and lasing in inverted opals. Nat. Phys. 4, 794–798 (2008)
S. John, Strong localization of photons in certain disordered dielectric superlattices. Phys. Rev. Lett. 58, 2486–2489 (1987)
M. Mascheck, S. Schmidt, M. Silies, T. Yatsui, K. Kitamura, M. Ohtsu, D. Leipold, E. Runge, C. Lienau, Observing the localization of light in space and time by ultrafast second-harmonic microscopy. Nat. Photonics 6, 293–298 (2012)
I.M. Vellekoop, A.P. Mosk, Focusing coherent light through opaque strongly scattering media. Opt. Lett. 32, 2309–2311 (2007)
E. Abrahams, P.W. Anderson, D.C. Licciardello, T.V. Ramakrishnan, Scaling theory of localization: absence of quantum diffusion in two dimensions. Phys. Rev. Lett. 42, 673 (1979)
D.J. Thouless, Electrons in disordered systems and the theory of localization. Phys. Rep. 13, 93–142 (1974)
K. Busch, C.M. Soukoulis, E.N. Economou, Transport and scattering mean free paths of classical waves. Phys. Rev. B 50, 93–98 (1994)
H. Cao, Y.G. Zhao, S.T. Ho, E.W. Seelig, Q.H. Wang, R.P.H. Chang, Random laser action in semiconductor powder. Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 2278–2281 (1999)
H. Cao, J.Y. Xu, D.Z. Zhang, S.H. Chang, S.T. Ho, E.W. Seelig, X. Liu, R.P.H. Chang, Spatial confinement of laser light in active random media. Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 5584–5587 (2000)
U. Ozgur, Y.I. Alivov, C. Liu, A. Teke, M.A. Reshchikov, S. Dogan, V. Avrutin, S.J. Cho, H. Morkoc, A comprehensive review of ZnO materials and devices. J. Appl. Phys. 98, 041103–041301 (2005)
V. Srikant, D.R. Clarke, On the optical band gap of zinc oxide. J. Appl. Phys. 83, 5447–5451 (1998)
A.B. Djurišić, Y. Chan, E.H. Li, The optical dielectric function of ZnO. Appl. Phys. A 76, 37–43 (2003)
A.B. Djurisić, Y.H. Leung, Optical properties of ZnO nanostructures. Small 2, 944–961 (2006)
B. Piglosiewicz, D. Sadiq, M. Mascheck, S. Schmidt, M. Silies, P. Vasa, C. Lienau, Ultrasmall bullets of light? focusing few-cycle light pulses to the diffraction limit. Opt. Express 19, 14451–14463 (2011)
S. Schmidt, M. Mascheck, M. Silies, T. Yatsui, K. Kitamura, M. Ohtsu, C. Lienau, Distinguishing between ultrafast optical harmonic generation and multi-photon-induced luminescence from ZnO thin films by frequency-resolved interferometric autocorrelation microscopy. Opt. Express 18, 25016–25028 (2010)
J. Sartor, F. Maier-Flaig, J. Conradt, J. Fallert, H. Kalt, D. Weissenberger, D. Gerthsen, Modifying growth conditions of ZnO nanorods for solar cell applications. Phys. Status Solidi (c) 7, 1583–1585 (2010)
H. Zhou, J. Fallert, J. Sartor, R.J.B. Dietz, C. Klingshirn, H. Kalt, D. Weissenberger, D. Gerthsen, H. Zeng, W. Cai, Ordered n-type ZnO nanorod arrays. Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 132112–132113 (2008)
K. Kitamura, T. Yatsui, M. Ohtsu, G.C. Yi, Fabrication of vertically aligned ultrafine ZnO nanorods using metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy with a two-temperature growth method. Nanotechnology 19, 175305 (2008)
R. Hauschild, H. Lange, H. Priller, C. Klingshirn, R. Kling, A. Waag, H.J. Fan, M. Zacharias, H. Kalt, Stimulated emission from ZnO nanorods. Phys. Status Solidi (b) 243, 853–857 (2006)
D.S. Kim, S.C. Hohng, V. Malyarchuk, Y.C. Yoon, Y.H. Ahn, K.J. Yee, J.W. Park, J. Kim, Q.H. Park, C. Lienau, Microscopic origin of surface-plasmon radiation in plasmonic band-gap nanostructures. Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 143901 (2003)
D.C. Dai, S.J. Xu, S.L. Shi, M.H. Xie, C.M. Che, Efficient multiphoton-absorption-induced luminescence in single-crystalline ZnO at room temperature. Opt. Lett. 30, 3377–3379 (2005)
G. Stibenz, G. Steinmeyer, Interferometric frequency-resolved optical gating. Opt. Express 13, 2617–2626 (2005)
A. Richardella, P. Roushan, S. Mack, B. Zhou, D.A. Huse, D.D. Awschalom, A. Yazdani, Visualizing critical correlations near the metal-insulator transition in ga1-xMnxAs. Science 327, 665–669 (2010)
I.V. Lerner, Distribution functions of current density and local density of states in disordered quantum conductors. Phys. Lett. A 133, 253–259 (1988)
B.L. Altshuler, V.E. Kravtsov, I.V. Lerner, Applicability of scaling description to the distribution of mesoscopic fluctuations. Phys. Lett. A 134, 488–492 (1989)
F. Riboli, P. Barthelemy, S. Vignolini, F. Intonti, A. De Rossi, S. Combrie, D.S. Wiersma, Anderson localization of near-visible light in two dimensions. Opt. Lett. 36, 127–129 (2011)
V. Dobrosavljević, E. Abrahams, E. Miranda, S. Chakravarty, Scaling theory of two-dimensional metal-insulator transitions. Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 455–458 (1997)
C. Castellani, G. Kotliar, P.A. Lee, Fermi-liquid theory of interacting disordered systems and the scaling theory of the metal-insulator transition. Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 323–326 (1987)
T.M. Nieuwenhuizen, M.C.W. van Rossum, Intensity distributions of waves transmitted through a multiple scattering medium. Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 2674 (1995)
A.F. Oskooi, D. Roundy, M. Ibanescu, P. Bermel, J.D. Joannopoulos, S.G. Johnson, Meep: a flexible free-software package for electromagnetic simulations by the FDTD method. Comput. Phys. Commun. 181, 687–702 (2010)
Acknowledgments
Financial support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SPP1391, SPP1839 and DFG-NSF Materials World Network), the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) within the DFG-JST strategic programme “Nanoelectronics”, by the European Union (project “CRONOS”, Grant number 280879-2) the Korea Foundation for International Cooperation of Science and Technology (Global Research Laboratory project, K20815000003) and the German–Israeli Foundation (Grant no. 1256) is gratefully acknowledged. M.S. wishes to thank the BMBF for a personal research grant “Photonic transistors” in the NanoMatFutur program. J.S. and H.K acknowledge support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (KL345/23-2) and the Karlsruhe School of Optics and Photonics (KSOP).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This article is part of the topical collection “Ultrafast Nanooptics” guest edited by Martin Aeschlimann and Walter Pfeiffer.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Silies, M., Mascheck, M., Leipold, D. et al. Near-field-assisted localization: effect of size and filling factor of randomly distributed zinc oxide nanoneedles on multiple scattering and localization of light. Appl. Phys. B 122, 181 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-016-6456-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-016-6456-2