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  • Review Article
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Antennas for light

Nature Photonics volume 5, pages 83–90 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Optical antennas are devices that convert freely propagating optical radiation into localized energy, and vice versa. They enable the control and manipulation of optical fields at the nanometre scale, and hold promise for enhancing the performance and efficiency of photodetection, light emission and sensing. Although many of the properties and parameters of optical antennas are similar to their radiowave and microwave counterparts, they have important differences resulting from their small size and the resonant properties of metal nanostructures. This Review summarizes the physical properties of optical antennas, provides a summary of some of the most important recent developments in the field, discusses the potential applications and identifies the future challenges and opportunities.

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Figure 1: Antenna design.
Figure 2: Examples of top-down fabricated optical antennas.
Figure 3: An antenna enhances the transmission efficiency from the transmitter to the receiver.
Figure 4: Biological imaging with optical antennas.
Figure 5: Example of a bottom-up fabricated optical antenna.
Figure 6: SEM images of two types of infrared antennas.

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Acknowledgements

N.L. and N.v.H. thank C. Hoeppener and P. Bharadwaj for providing the particle trimer probe shown in Fig. 5a. They also thank T. Taminiau for valuable discussions. N.L. and N.v.H. thank M. Castro-Lopez, G. Volpe, L. Neumann, A. Curto, M. Kuttge and R. Quidant for providing several top-down fabricated antennas. L.N. acknowledges financial support from the US Department of Energy (DE-FG02-01ER15204) and the National Science Foundation (ECCS- 0918416 and ECCS-0651079). N.v.H. thanks the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CSD2007-046-NanoLight.es and FIS2009-08203), the Fundacio Cellex Barcelona and the European Research Council (AdvGrant ERC247330) for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, Rochester, 14627, New York, USA

    Lukas Novotny

  2. Institut de Ciències Fotòniques, Mediterranean Technology Park, 08860 Castelldefels, Barcelona, Spain

    Niek van Hulst

  3. Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Barcelona, 08015, Spain

    Niek van Hulst

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Correspondence to Lukas Novotny.

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Novotny, L., van Hulst, N. Antennas for light. Nature Photon 5, 83–90 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2010.237

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