Ultrafast and Nonlinear Response of Hybrid Plasmonic Nanosystems

Dr Hayk Harutyunyan (Emory)

The nanoscale confinement and reduced dimensionality of materials open up new possibilities for controlling and enhancing the light-matter interaction. Nanostructuring leads not only to novel electromagnetic phenomena but can also affect the nature of photo-assisted electronic transitions and ultrafast carrier dynamics. In this talk, I will present our latest efforts in the manipulation of light-matter interaction at the nanoscale using metal plasmonic nanosystems. The first part of the talk will focus on the enhancement of the nonlinear optical effects at the nanoscale and the design of efficient nonlinear metasurfaces. The role of various factors such as field-enhancement, hybridization of resonances, mode symmetry and overlap will be considered. In the second part of the talk I will discuss how the spatial localization of the electromagnetic fields can enable forbidden quantum transitions in materials. In particular, the enhancement of intraband absorption in gold through resonant Landau damping will be addressed.