Optical antennae for optoelectronics: Impacts, promises, and limitations

This chapter first looks at the reason for the weak coupling of the photons and electronic transitions in matters. Then, it look at metallic structures, and describes how they can enhance the coupling in the near-field by hundreds of times, but fail to do so for the far-field. An example of an optical antenna that is capable of radiation enhancement of a quantum emitter and efficient coupling of such radiation from the near field to the far field is then presented. Finally, the optical antenna is compared with the conventional “radio” antenna to show that in fact there is a major difference between the two that could lead to significant unexplored benefits from the optical antenna.