Optical nanoantennas capable of converting external electromagnetic fields into confined energy and vice versa play a very important role in optical field manipulation. Among them, the bowtie antenna has received extensive attention from researchers in related fields because of its strong field localization and enhancement under the optical or electrical excitation, enabling a host of application scenarios.

The authors of recent research in Opto-Electronic Science review the widespread applications of optically/electrically driven nanoscale bowtie antennas, summarizing the applications of optically excited bowtie antennas in the fields of optical imaging/trapping, nonlinear optics, nanolithography, and nano-sources. The principle, preparation and characterization of the electrically driven bowtie tunnel junction are discussed, as well as application prospects in ultrafast tunable optical nano-sources.

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of bowtie based nanophotonics.