title: Near-field light design with colloidal quantum dots for photonics and plasmonics.
abstract: Colloidal quantum-dots are bright, tunable emitters that are ideal for studying near-field quantum-optical interactions. However, their colloidal nature has hindered their facile and precise placement at desired near-field positions, particularly on the structured substrates prevalent in plasmonics. Here, we use high-resolution electro-hydrodynamic printing (<100 nm feature size) to deposit countable numbers of quantum dots on both flat and structured substrates with a few nanometer precision. We also demonstrate that the autofocusing capability of the printing method enables placement of quantum dots preferentially at plasmonic hot spots. We exploit this control and design diffraction-limited photonic and plasmonic sources with arbitrary wavelength, shape, and intensity. We show that simple far-field illumination can excite these near-field sources and generate fundamental plasmonic wave-patterns (plane and spherical waves). The ability to tailor subdiffraction sources of plasmons with quantum dots provides a complementary technique to traditional scattering approaches, offering new capabilities for nanophotonics.
authors.affiliation: Optical Materials Engineering Laboratory and ‡Laboratory of Thermodynamics in Emerging Technologies, ETH Zurich , 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Stephan J P
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Kress
authors.forename: Patrizia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Richner
authors.forename: Sriharsha V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Jayanti
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Galliker
authors.forename: David K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Dimos
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Poulikakos
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Norris
keywords: Semiconductor nanocrystals; colloidal quantum dots; electro-hydrodynamic printing; nanophotonics; plasmonics