Vacuum-Induced Saturation in Plasmonic Nanoparticles
Abstract
Vacuum fluctuations are a fundamental feature of quantized fields. It is usually assumed that observations connected to vacuum fluctuations require a system well isolated from other influences. In this work, we demonstrate that effects of the quantum vacuum can already occur in simple colloidal nano-assemblies prepared by wet chemistry. We claim that the electromagnetic field fluctuations at the zero-point level saturate the absorption of dye molecules self-assembled at the surface of plasmonic nano-resonators. For this effect to occur, reaching the strong coupling regime between the plasmons and excitons is not required. This intriguing effect of vacuum-induced saturation (VISA) is discussed within a simple quantum optics picture and demonstrated by comparing the optical spectra of hybrid gold-core dye-shell nanorods to electromagnetic simulations.
- Publication:
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arXiv e-prints
- Pub Date:
- August 2020
- DOI:
- 10.48550/arXiv.2008.09395
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2008.09395
- Bibcode:
- 2020arXiv200809395S
- Keywords:
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- Physics - Optics;
- Condensed Matter - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics;
- Quantum Physics
- E-Print:
- 7 pages, 4 figures