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Near-Field Gain and Far-Field Control via a Plasmonic Time Crystal Slab

Jaime E. Sustaeta-Osuna*, Thomas F. Allard, Francisco J. García-Vidal, and Paloma A. Huidobro†

  • *Contact author: jaime.echave-sustaeta@uam.es
  • †Contact author: p.arroyo-huidobro@uam.es
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 136903 – Published 31 March, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/lfr1-dwlv

Abstract

Light-matter interactions can be substantially altered in the presence of time-varying media. We study the interaction between a harmonic electric dipole and a plasmonic time crystal slab. Temporal modulation of the plasma frequency enables near-field gain, allowing the dipole to absorb rather than emit energy, suppressing nonradiative losses. At the parametric resonance condition, the slab radiates strongly to the far field, producing 100% oscillations in the radiated power at distances up to 103 times the ε-near-zero wavelength. These findings reveal a new mechanism for controlling light-matter interaction in time-varying plasmonic systems.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 136903– Published 31 March, 2026
  • Received 24 September 2025
  • Revised 11 December 2025
  • Accepted 23 January 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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