Nonlinear chaotic dynamics in nonlocal plasmonic core-shell nanoparticle dimer

Plasmonic nanoparticles can be employed as a promising integrated platform for lumped optical nanoelements with unprecedentedly high integration capacity and efficient nanoscale ultrafast nonlinear functionality. Further minimizing the size of plasmonic nanoelements will lead to a rich variety of nonlocal optical effects due to the nonlocal nature of electrons in plasmonic materials. In this work, we theoretically investigate the nonlinear chaotic dynamics of the plasmonic core-shell nanoparticle dimer consisting of a nonlocal plasmonic core and a Kerr-type nonlinear shell at nanometer scale. This kind of optical nanoantennae could provide novel switching functionality: tristable, astable multivibrators, and chaos generator. We give a qualitative analysis on the influence of nonlocality and aspect ratio of core-shell nanoparticles on the chaos regime as well as on the nonlinear dynamical processing. It is demonstrated that considering nonlocality is very important in the design of such nonlinear functional photonic nanoelements with ultra-small size. Compared to solid nanoparticles, core-shell nanoparticles provide an additional freedom to adjust their plasmonic property hence tuning the chaotic dynamic regime in the geometric parameter space. This kind of nanoscale nonlinear system could be the candidate for a nonlinear nanophotonic device with a tunable nonlinear dynamical response. & COPY; 2023 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement

Automated summary

In this study, we theoretically investigate the nonlinear chaotic dynamics of a plasmonic core-shell nanoparticle dimer consisting of a nonlocal plasmonic core and a Kerr-type nonlinear shell at the nanometer scale. The results demonstrate that considering nonlocality is crucial in the design of ultra-small-sized nonlinear functional photonic nanoelements. Core-shell nanoparticles provide the freedom to adjust their plasmonic property, allowing for tuning the chaotic dynamic regime in the geometric parameter space. This kind of nanoscale nonlinear system could be a candidate for a tunable nonlinear nanophotonic device.