Dispersion and excitation of SPP

SPP are 2D EM waves propagating at the interface conductor-dielectric

(bound waves)
kx > kd evanescent decay at both interfaces confinement
SPP dispersion curve lies to the right of the light line
excitation by 3D light beams is not possible
phase-matching techniques are required

Excitation Surface-Plasmon Polaritons with Electrons

Excitation with electrons
First experiments with high energy electrons
Measurement: Energy loss
Direction of electrons
Whole dispersion relation can be investigated

Example: 50 keV has a = 0.005 nm << light

kelectron >> klight
Stringent requirement on divergence e- beam

Excitation Surface-Plasmon Polaritons (SPPs) with Light

Problem SPP modes lie below the light line
No coupling of SPP modes to far field and vice versa (reciprocity theorem)
Need a trick to excite modes below the light line
Trick 1: Excitation from a high index medium
Excitation SPP at a metal/air interface from a high index medium n = nh
k of photon in air is always < k of SPP
no excitation of SPP is possible
in a dielectric k of the photon is
increased
k of photon in dielectric can equal k
of SPP
SPP at metal/air interface can be excited from a
high index medium!
How does this work in practice ?

SPP can be excited by p-polarized

light (SPP has longitudinal
component)

Kretschmann geometry (Trick 1)

Create evanescent wave by TIR

Strong coupling when k//,SiO2 equal to ksp

Reflected wave reduced in intensity

Excitation by ATR
SPP excitation requires

kphoton,x = kSP,x

Excitation by Kretschmann geometry

Resonance condition

Kretschmann configuration angle scan

illumination freq. 0= const.

Dependence on Film Thickness

Width resonance related to damping of the SPP

Light escapes prism below critical angle for total internal reflection
Technique can be used to determine the thickness of metallic thin films
Light intensity reflected from the back surface depends on the film thickness
There exists a film thickness for perfect coupling (destructive interference between two
refl. beams)
When light coupled in perfectly, all the EM energy dissipated in the film

Current Use of the Surface Plasmon Resonance Technique

Determination film thickness of deposited films
Example: Investigation Langmuir-Blodgett-Kuhn (LBK) films

Coupling angle strongly dependent on the film thickness of the LBK film
Detection of just a few LBK layers is feasible

Surface Plasmon Sensors

Advantages Evanescent field interacts with adsorbed molecules only

Coupling angle strongly depends on d
Use of well-established surface chemistry for Au (thiol chemistry)
Surface plasmons are frequently exploited in a variety of applications, including highly-sensitive
spectroscopy methods

Methods of SPP excitation

nprism > nL

Excitation Surface-Plasmon Polaritons with Gratings (trick 2)

Bloch: Periodic dielectric constant couples waves for which the k-vectors differ by a
reciprocal lattice vector G
Strong coupling occurs when
where:

Graphic representation

Exciting SPP by scattering light off grating

i
d

ki

This is effectively a (quasi-)momentum

conservation

kSPP

Grating changes longitudinal wave vector of a photon by

2
; m = 1,2,...
d
ki sin i + K g = k SPP
Coupling to SPP is achieved when
K g = m

Grating can be also used to extract SPPs:

Left: SEM image of 2 arrays with a period of 760 nm are separated by 30 m. The hole
diameter is 250 nm. The small array at the bottom is the source array whereas the big array
at the top is not illuminated by the laser light and acts as a probe array. Inset: zoom in
on the holes of one array.
Right: Near-field optical image of the pattern when the laser is focused on the small array
and the electric field is along the x direction. [From Deveaux et al, APL 83, 4936 (2003)

Left: SEM image of 2 arrays with a period of 760 nm are separated by 30 m. The hole
diameter is 250 nm. The small array at the bottom is the source array whereas the big array
at the top is not illuminated by the laser light and acts as a probe array. Inset: zoom in
on the holes of one array.
Right: Near-field optical image of the pattern when the laser is focused on the small array
and the electric field is along the x direction. [From Deveaux et al, APL 83, 4936 (2003)

Near-field excitation

Small aperture wavevector components

k0 < kx < k phase matched excitation

Conclusions: surface plasmon polariton

Surface plasmon: bound EM wave at metal-dielectric interface
Dispersion: (k) diverges near the plasma resonance: large k, small
Control dispersion: control (k), losses, concentration

Manipulate light at length scales

below the diffraction limit

Plasmonic toolbox: , (), d - Engineer ()

Plasmonic integrated circuits

Plasmonic concentrator

Plasmonic multiplexer

Plasmonic lens
thin section

Y Axis Title

1.0
0.5
0.0
-0.5
-1.0
0

200

400

600

Distance (nm)

800

1000

And much more ..

Nanophotonics using plasmonic circuits

Majority of optical components based on dielectrics

High speed, high bandwidth (), but
Does not scale well

Needed for large scale integration

Problems

Solutions ?
Photonic functionality based on metals?!

Plasmon-Polariton Propagation in Au rod

Nanophotonics with Plasmonics: A logical next step?

The operating speed of data transporting and processing systems

The ever-increasing need for faster information processing and transport is undeniable
Electronic components are running out of steam due to issues with RC-delay times

Why not electronics?

As data rates AND component packing densities INCREASE, electrical interconnects
become progressively limited by RC-delay:

Electronics is limited in speed!

Why not photonics?

The bit rate in optical communications is fundamentally limited only by the carrier
frequency: Bmax < f ~ 100 Tbit/s (!), but light propagation is subjected to diffraction:

Photonics is diffraction- limited in size!

Why Plasmonics?

SP wavelengths can reach nanoscale at optical frequencies!

SPPs are x-ray waves with optical frequencies

Why nanophotonics needs plasmons?