What is it about?
Propagation length of surface plasmon polaritons travelling along gold nano-/micro-waveguides is properly enhanced by the interference with photonic modes in the surrounding active dielectrics. A low power laser is coupled into an optical fiber tip that is used to locally excite the photoluminescence of colloidal quantum dots (QDs) dispersed in their sur- roundings. Emitted light from these QDs is generating the SPPs that propagate along the metal waveguides. the above-referred propagation lengths were directly extracted from this novel experimental technique by studying the intensity of light decoupled at the output edge of the waveguide. Furthermore, an enhancement of the propagation length up to 0.4 mm is measured for the 500-nm-wide metal nanostripe, for which this effect is maximum. For this purpose, a simultaneous excitation of the same QDs dispersed in poly(methyl methacrylate) waveguides integrated with the metal nanostructures is performed.
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Why is it important?
We propose a new method to characterize the propagation length in SPP, and mode interference mechanism to enhance the propagation length.
Perspectives
The proposed system and the method to create propagating SPPs in metal wave- guides can be of interest to characterize plasmonic waveguides, to reduze the size of photonic chips, and to enhance the propagation length of light travelling along metal nanostructures. Potential applications include sensors, optical communications, or plasmonic interconnects.
Isaac Suárez
University of Valencia
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This page is a summary of: Propagation length enhancement of surface plasmon polaritons in gold nano-/micro-waveguides by the interference with photonic modes in the surrounding active dielectrics, Nanophotonics, February 2017, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1515/nanoph-2016-0166.
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