P r o f .   Y o n a t a n    S i v a n

School of Electrical & Computer Engineering

Ben-Gurion University

Office:

Building 64, room 110

Phone:

972-(0)8-6479805

E-mail:

sivanyon@bgu.ac.il

Last updated: 18/3/2024

 

Students wanted – high scholarship guaranteed

S u m m a r y    o f    r e s e a r c h    

Short  CV

 

Symposium on modal expansions for nanophotonic systems; September 17th, 2020; full lecture recordings available.

P u b l i c a t i o n s

R e c e n t

E a r l i e r

 

Electron non-equilibrium in metals

For a lecture explaining our recent work on the topic, including the re-interpretation of plasmon-assisted photocatalysis experiments, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvhewjB5U5c

Matters arising in “Plasmon-driven carbon-fluorine (C(SP^3)-F) bond activation with mechanistic insights into hot-carrier-mediated pathways”  

Nature Catalysis 3: 564–573, 2022.

 

The photothermal nonlinearity in plasmon-assisted photocatalysis  

Nanoscale 14: 5022, 2022.

 

Distinguishing thermal from non-thermal ("hot") carries in illuminated molecular junctions

Nano Letters 22: 2127-2133 , 2022.

For a lecture on this work, see Movies\PHOTOPTICS_AT_2022_38.mp4 (starting from the middle, unfortunately).

 

Lessons learned from recent experiments? A critical analysis of "Hot carrier multiplication in plasmonic photocatalysis"

 

The role of heat generation and fluid flow in plasmon-enhanced reduction-oxidation reactions

ACS Photonics 8: 1183-1190, 2021.

 

Recent developments in plasmon-assisted photocatalysis – A personal Perspective

Appl. Phys. Letters 117: 130501, 2020.

 

Parametric study of temperature distribution in plasmon-assisted photocatalysis

Nanoscale 12: 17821-17832, 2020.

Supplementary Information

 

Thermal effects - an alternative mechanism for plasmonic-assisted photo-catalysis

Chemical Science 11: 5017-5027, 2020.

Supplementary Information

 

Experimental practices required to isolate thermal effects in plasmonic photo-catalysis – lessons from recent experiments

OSA Continuum 3: 483-497, 2020.

 

Comment on “Quantifying hot carrier and thermal contributions in plasmonic photocatalysis”

Science 364: (6439) eaaw9367, 2019.

 

 

 

Assistance of metal nanoparticles in photocatalysis – nothing more than a classical heat source

Faraday Discussions 214: 215, 2019.

 

“Hot” electrons in metallic nanostructures – thermal vs. non-thermal effects;

Light: Science & Applications 8: 89, 2019.

Supplementary Materials

 

·         J. Aizpurua et al., Dynamics of hot electron generation in metallic nanostructures: general discussion

Faraday Discussions 214: 123, 2019.

 

·         J. Aizpurua et al., Theory of hot electrons: general discussion,

Faraday Discussions 214: 245, 2019.

 

 

Theory of low density Drude materials

Phys. Rev. Applied 19: 014005, 2023.

 

Metal luminescence and thermometry

Crossover from non-thermal to thermal photoluminescence from metals excited by ultrashort light pulses

ACS Nano 17: 11439-11453, 2023.

 

“Theory of “Hot” photoluminescence from Drude metals

ACS Nano 15: 8724-8732, 2021.

Supplementary Materials

See correction (the published errata was unfortunately wrong too).

 

Effective electron temperature measurement using time-resolved anti-Stokes

photoluminescence

J. Phys. Chem. A 124: 6968–6976, 2020.

 

Thermal emission from nanostructures

Thermal emission of spinning photons from temperature gradients

Phys. Rev. Applied, 18: 014052, 2022.

See https://picoelectrodynamics.org/news/our-paper-got-published-physical-review-applied

 

Numerical methods for electromagnetism

For a lecture summarizing our recent progress in the development of efficient modal computational techniques for nanophotonic systems, see    Movies\GENOME_lecture_MTMs_NY_30_9_2020.mp4 or more recently Movies\Cargese_talk.mp4

Wide frequency band expansion of permittivity normal modes.

Journal of the Optical Society of America, 39: 2387, 2022.

 

Generalised normal mode expansion method for open and lossy periodic structures.

Journal of the Optical Society of America B 39: 1338, 2022.

 

Resolving the Gibbs phenomenon via a discontinuous basis in a mode solver for open optical systems.

Journal of Computational Physics 429: 110004, 2021.

 

An efficient solver for the generalized normal modes of non-uniform open optical resonators
Journal of Computational Physics 422: 109754, 2020.

 

Scattering by lossy anisotropic scatterers: A modal approach
Journal of Applied Physics 129: 113104, 2021.

See an introduction of the paper in https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/10.0003927

 

Overcoming the bottleneck for quantum computations of complex nanophotonic

structures: Purcell and FRET calculations using a rigorous mode hybridization method

Phys. Rev. B 101: 155401, 2020.

 

Generalized normal mode expansion of electromagnetic Green’s tensor for open systems
Phys. Rev. Applied 11: 044018, 2019.

 

Robust location of optical fiber modes via the argument principle method
Computer Physics Communications 214: 105-116, 2017.

 

Codes are available here.

 

Frequency-domain modelling of TM wave propagation in optical nanostructures with a third-order nonlinear response
Optics Letters 34: 3364-6, 2009.

 

Heat and charge transport in metals

For a lecture summarizing our recent progress on the topic, see Movies\Photonics_West_ultrafast_diffusion_2021.wmv

 

·         A. Block, R. Yu, I. W. Un, S, Varghese, M. Liebel, N. F. van Hulst, S. Fan, K.-J. Tielrooij, Y. Sivan

Observation of negative effective thermal diffusion in gold films

ACS Photonics 10: 1150-1158, 2023.

 

·         Y. Sivan, M. Spector

Ultrafast dynamics of optically-induced heat gratings in metals - more complicated than expected
ACS Photonics 7: 1271−1279, 2020.

 

·         A. Block, M. Liebel, R. Yu, M. Spector, Y. Sivan, F. J. García de Abajo, N. F. van Hulst

Tracking ultrafast hot-electron diffusion in space and time by ultrafast thermomodulation microscopy; Supplementary Materials
Science Advances 5: eaav8965, 2019.

 

See also a popular introduction to this paper in https://sciencetrends.com/hot-electrons-diffuse-100-times-faster-than-usual/

 

Electron non-equilibrium in semiconductors

Theory of Non-equilibrium Hot Carriers in Direct Band-gap Semiconductors Under Continuous Illumination

New Journal of Physics 24: 053008, 2022.

 

Frequency conversion in metal nanoparticles

Optimization of second-harmonic generation from touching plasmonic wires

Phys. Rev. B 103: 075411, 2021.

 

Sum frequency generation from touching wires: A transformation optics approach

Optics Letters 46: 2079, 2021.

 

Second-harmonic generation due to coulomb-like interaction in a heterodimer of subwavelength dimensions
Optics Express 28: 31468, 2020.

 

Surface second-harmonic from metallic nanoparticle configurations - a transformation optics approach

Physical Review B 99: 235429, 2019.

 

Revisiting the boundary conditions for second-harmonic generation at metal-dielectric interfaces

Journal of the Optical Society of America B 34: 1824, 2017.

Thermal nonlinearity of metals

The thermo-optic nonlinearity of single metal nanoparticles under intense continuous-wave illumination

Phys. Rev. Materials 4: 105201, 2020.

 

Size-dependence of the photothermal response of a single metal nanosphere

Journal of Applied Physics 126: 173103, 2019.

 

See also Scilight article featuring our work in https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/10.0000221

 

Metal nanospheres under intense continuous-wave illumination: A unique case of non-perturbative nonlinear nanophotonics

Physical Review E 96: 059901, 2017.

 

Nonlinear plasmonics at high temperatures

Nanophotonics 6: 317-328, 2017.

 

Temperature- and –roughness dependent permittivity of annealed/unannealed gold films

Optics Express 24: 19254, 2016.

 

 

Ultrashort pulses dynamics

Stopping light using a transient Bragg grating

Phys. Rev. A 101: 033828, 2020.

 

Pulse propagation in the slow and stopped light regimes

Optics Express 26: 19294, 2018.

 

Ns-duration transient Bragg gratings in silica fibers

Optics Letters 42: 4748, 2017.

 

Nonlinear wave interactions between short pulses of different spatio-temporal extents
Scientific Reports 6: 29010, 2016.

 

Coupled-mode theory for electromagnetic pulse propagation in dispersive media undergoing a spatiotemporal perturbation: Exact derivation, numerical validation and peculiar wave mixing
Physical Review B: 93: 144303, 2016.

 

Femtosecond-scale modulations and switching based on periodic patterns of excited free-carriers
Optics Express 23: 16416-28, 2015.

 

Theory of wave-front reversal of short pulses in dynamically-tuned zero-gap periodic systems
Physical Review A 84: 033822-1-13, 2011.

 

Broadband time-reversal of optical pulses using a switchable photonic crystal mirror
Optics Express 19: 14502-7, 2011.

 

Time-reversal in dynamically-tuned zero-gap periodic systems
Physical Review Letters 106: 193909, 2011.

 

See also cover story at http://phys.org/news/2011-05-physicists-time-reversed-pulses.html

 

Nanoparticle-assisted microscopy

Nano-particle assisted STED nanoscopy with gold nanospheres

ACS Photonics 5, 2574-2583, 2017.

 

Plasmonic Nanoprobes for Stimulated Emission Depletion Nanoscopy

ACS Nano 10, 10454-10461, 2016.

 

Experimental proof of concept of nano-particle assisted STED

Nano Letters 14: 4449-4453, 2014.

 

For a video presentation of these results by my colleague - http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/proceeding.aspx?articleid=1939388

 

Performance improvement in Nano-particle assisted STED nanoscopy
Applied Physics Letters 101: 021111, 2012.

 

Nano-particle assisted STED nanoscopy
ACS Nano 6: 5291, 2012.

 

See also Perspective Article at

Plasmonics meets far-field optical nanoscopy
ACS Nano 6: 4580, 2012.

 

Plasmonic sinks for the selective removal of long-lived states

ACS Nano 5: 9958, 2011.

 

 

Metamaterial design

Reinterpreting the magnetoelectric coupling of infinite cylinders using symmetry

Physical Review B 94: 035142, 2016.

 

 

Airy beam formation

Spontaneously-formed auto-focusing caustics in a confined self-defocusing medium

Optica 2: 1053-1056 (2015).

 

 

Plasmon-resonance in metal nano-particles

Independence of plasmonic near-filed enhancement to illumination beam profile
Physical Review B 86: 155441, 2012.

 

 

Loss compensation in plasmonic nanostructures using gain media

Frequency-domain simulations of a negative-index material with embedded gain
Optics Express 17: 24060-74, 2009.

 

 

Solitons in inhomogeneous media

A quantitative approach to soliton instability
Optics Letters 36: 397-9, 2011.

 

Qualitative and quantitative analysis of stability and instability dynamics of positive lattice solitons
            Physical Review E 78: 046602, 2008.

Also available at the November 2008 edition of the APS virtual journal.

 

Drift instability and tunneling of lattice solitons
Physical Review E 77: 045601(R), 2008.

 

Analytic theory of narrow lattice solitons
Nonlinearity 21: 509-536, 2008.

 

Instability of bound states of a nonlinear Schrodinger equation with a Dirac potential
Physica D 237: 1103-1128, 2008.

 

Also available at the October 2006 edition of the APS virtual journal.

 

            Interaction-induced localization of anomalously diffracting nonlinear waves
            Physical Review Letters 97: 193901, 2006.

 

 

Atmospheric propagation

           Control of the filamentation distance and pattern in long-range atmospheric propagation
           Optics Express 15: 2779-2784, 2007.

 

           Control of the collapse distance in atmospheric propagation
            Optics Express 14: 4946-4957, 2006.

 

 

 

 

 

G r o u p

Current members

Dr. Kaizad Rustomji

Dr. Imon Kalyan

Sravya Rao, PhD candidate

Ben Spiegel, MSc candidate

Naama Harcavi, MSc candidate

Tamir Bitton, MSc candidate

 

Past members

Dr. Ieng Wai Un; now at South China normal University 

 

Dr. Subhajit Sarkar; now at Jagiellonian University 

Dr. Ashish Prajapati; now post-doctoral fellow at UC Berkeley

Dr. Parry Chen; now at GreenerWave

Dr. Guillaume Le Saux; at BGU

Dr. Tal Weiss

Dr. K. Nireekshan Reddy; now at KLA Tencor, Israel

Dr. Ioseph Gurwich

Dr. Shlomo Pinhas

Dr. Igal Balin; now at KLA Tencor, Israel

Tamir Grossinger

Rebeca Miyar, MSc

Shimon Elkabetz, MSc

Roy Ayash, MSc

Shai Rozenberg; now at MAFAT, Israel

Yaki Ben-Yakar

 

 

T e a c h i n g

Introduction to photoelectronics

Introduction to wave propagation

Introduction to nano-plasmonics and metamaterials

Advanced topics in electromagnetism