Multiphoton Upconversion Enhanced by Deep Subwavelength Near-Field Confinement

Efficient generation of anti-Stokes emission within nanometric volumes enables the design of ultracompact, miniaturized photonic devices for a host of applications. Many subwavelength crystals, such as metal nanoparticles and two-dimensional layered semiconductors, have been coupled with plasmonic nanostructures for augmented anti-Stokes luminescence through multiple-harmonic generation. However, their upconversion process remains inefficient due to their intrinsic low absorption coefficients. Here, we demonstrate on-chip, site-specific integration of lanthanide-activated nanocrystals within gold nanotrenches of sub-25 nm gaps via bottom-up self-assembly. Coupling of upconversion nanoparticles to subwavelength gap-plasmon modes boosts 3.7-fold spontaneous emission rates and enhances upconversion by a factor of 100 000. Numerical investigations reveal that the gap-mode nanocavity confines incident excitation radiation into nanometric photonic hotspots with extremely high field intensity, accelerating multiphoton upconversion processes. The ability to design lateral gap-plasmon modes for enhanced frequency conversion may hold the potential to develop on-chip, background-free molecular sensors and low-threshold upconversion lasers.