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Yuan JZ, Hu J, Zheng Y et al. Enhanced amplified spontaneous emission via splitted strong coupling mode in large-area plasmonic cone lattices. Opto-Electron Sci 4, 240021 (2025). doi: 10.29026/oes.2025.240021
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Enhanced amplified spontaneous emission via splitted strong coupling mode in large-area plasmonic cone lattices
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Abstract
Periodic metal nanoarrays serving as cavities can support directional-tunable amplified spontaneous emission that goes beyond the diffraction limit due to the hybrid states of surface plasmons and Bloch surface waves. Most of these modes' interactions remain within the weak coupling regime, yet strong coupling is also anticipated to occur. In this work, we present an intriguing case of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE), amplified by the splitting upper polariton mode within a strong coupling system, stemming from a square lattice of plasmonic cone lattices (PCLs). The PCLs are fabricated using an anodized aluminum oxide membrane (AAO), which facilitates strong coupling between surface plasmons and Bloch surface wave modes, with the maximum Rabi splitting observed at 0.258 eV for the sample with an aspect ratio of 0.33. A 13.5-fold increase in amplified spontaneous emission is recorded when the emission from Nile Red coincides with this flat energy branch of upper polariton, which exhibits a high photon density of states. Reduced group velocity can prolong photon lifetime and boost the probability of light-matter interaction. The observed ASE phenomenon in this strong coupling plasmonic system widens the scope for applications in nanolasing and polariton lasing. -
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References
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Supplementary information for Enhanced amplified spontaneous emission via splitted strong coupling mode in large-area plasmonic cone lattices 
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Yuan JZ, Hu J, Zheng Y et al. Enhanced amplified spontaneous emission via splitted strong coupling mode in large-area plasmonic cone lattices. Opto-Electron Sci 4, 240021 (2025). doi: 10.29026/oes.2025.240021
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Figure 1.
The preparation and adjustment processes of the square lattice of PCLs. (a) Schematic of the preparation process of voltage-controlled porous AAO membrane and Al foil in cross-sectional view, along with a photograph of PCLs where the blue region represents the effective sample area with a periodicity of 400 nm. The black box depicts the schematic of AAO (gray) and Al foil (green) at three different anodic oxidation voltages in cross-sectional view. H3PO4 is utilized to supply anions for the anodic oxidation. (b–d) SEM images show the AAO membrane (gray) and Al foil (green) at various oxidation voltages in cross-sectional view, with the morphology of the Al foil highlighted in green. (e–g) SEM images of PCLs after the removal of AAO in a perspective view, where the cones' morphology is indicated in green.
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Figure 2.
Optical characterization of PCLs. (a) Schematic of plasmonic modes in PCLs system, where Bloch-SPPs exist in PCLs with a negative aspect ratio (top), and both LSPs and Bloch-SPPs simultaneously exist in PCLs with a positive aspect ratio (bottom). (b) Schematic of DOs and the first Brillouin zone (yellow shaded area) of a square lattice in reciprocal space. The reciprocal lattice vectors are defined as G (green arrows), the in-plane incident light wave vectors are defined as k// (red arrows) and the wave vectors of DOs are defined as kDO (blue arrows). (c) The reflection dispersion of PCLs in an environment with a refraction index (RI) = 1.48 under TE polarization. Insets are feature images of Al cone in pseudo-color with heights of −200 nm, 83 nm, 116 nm and 135 nm, respectively. The DOs modes are marked by white dotted curves. (d) A magnified dispersion of the strong coupling of PCLs with a height of 135 nm is plotted at the top, where the dashed curves are the fitted curves of splitting energy branches and full width at half maxima (FWHM) of UP and lower polariton (LP) are shown in magnified dispersion. The anti-crossing occurs at the incident angle of 11°. The reflection spectra are listed at the bottom with incident angles ranging from 3° to 30°, and the photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy spectrum of Nile Red is drawn in pink.
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Figure 3.
Theoretical calculation and temporal dynamics of Rabi oscillation in PCLs. (a) The schematic illustrates strong coupling between LSPs and Bloch-SPPs in PCLs, where the population of eigenmodes is represented by color density. (b) The Hopfield coefficient for the Bloch-SPPs and LSPs in the UP and LP branches is plotted as a function of the wave vector k, quantifying the percentage of eigenmodes. (c) Normalized calculated emission spectra of the strong coupling system at zero detuning (Δ = 0) are presented. (d) Eigenfrequency calculations of UP and LP modes. Upper left: theoretical results for E-k dispersion. Upper right: experimental results for E-k dispersion are provided. (e) Time evolution of the average photon number for Bloch-SPPs mode and LSPs mode in the UP and LP modes is depicted. (f) The electric field distribution of PCLs in the strong coupling regime is shown.
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Figure 4.
ASE measurement of the plasmonic PCLs in a strong coupling condition. (a) The schematic depicts an PCLs covered by Nile Red, as captured by an optical confocal microscope, along with the measurement diagram for the incident angle θin, emission angle θem, and azimuth angle φ. Here the measurement conditions are φ = 0°, θem = 10° for the 116 nm height and θem = 11° for the 135 nm height. (b) The emission (in black) and FWHM (in red) of the PCLs for heights of 116 nm (dots) and 135 nm (triangles) are shown as a function of pump power. The emission intensity is presented on the y-axis using logarithmic coordinates. The samples with heights of 116 nm and 135 nm are represented by circles and triangles, respectively. The emission amplification and normalized emission dispersion of the PCLs with a height of 116 nm (c) and 135 nm (d) covered by the Nile Red molecule, along with the reflection dispersion of PCLs, are presented.
