Asymmetrically Curved Hyperbolic Metamaterial Structure with Gradient Thicknesses for Enhanced Directional Spontaneous Emission

Abstract

We demonstrate hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs) on a curved surface for an efficient outcoupling of nonradiative modes, which lead to an enhanced spontaneous emission. Those high-wavevector plasmonic modes can propagate along the curved structure and emit into the far field, realizing a directional light emission with maximal fluorescent intensity. Detailed simulations disclose a high Purcell factor and a spatial power distribution in the curved HMM, which agrees with the experimental result. Our work presents remarkable enhancing capability in both the Purcell factor and emission intensity, which could suggest a unique structure design in metamaterials for potential application in, e.g., high-speed optical sensing and communications.