Directing Cherenkov photons with spatial nonlocality

Nanophotonics

article

Hao Hu¹  Dongliang Gao²  Xiao Lin³  Songyan Hou⁴  Baile Zhang³  Qi Jie Wang¹  Yu Luo¹ 

[1] School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University;School of Physical Science and Technology, Soochow University;Division of Physics and Applied Physics, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University;University of Arizona, James C. Wyant College of Optical Sciences

关键词: Cherenkov radiation;    light–matter interaction;    metamaterials;    plasmonics;    spatial nonlocality;   

DOI  :  10.1515/nanoph-2020-0135

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: De Gruyter

【 摘 要 】

Cherenkov radiation in natural transparent materials is generally forward-propagating, owing to the positive group index of radiation modes. While negative-index metamaterials enable reversed Cherenkov radiation, the forward photon emission from a swift charged particle is prohibited. In this work, we theoretically investigate emission behaviours of a swift charged particle in the nanometallic layered structure. Our results show that Cherenkov photons are significantly enhanced by longitudinal plasmon modes resulting from the spatial nonlocality in metamaterials. More importantly, longitudinal Cherenkov photons can be directed either forward or backward, stringently depending on the particle velocity. The enhanced flexibility to route Cherenkov photons holds promise for many practical applications of Cherenkov radiation, such as novel free-electron radiation sources and new types of Cherenkov detectors.

【 授权许可】

CC BY