Modulation of surface plasmon coupling-in by one-dimensional surface corrugation

Abstract

Surface plasmon-polaritons have recently attracted renewed interest in the scientific community for their potential in sub-wavelength optics, light generation and non-destructive sensing. Given that they cannot be directly excited by freely propagating light due to their intrinsical binding to the metal surface, the light-plasmon coupling efficiency becomes of crucial importance for the success of any plasmonic device. Here we present a comprehensive study on the modulation (enhancement or suppression) of such coupling efficiency by means of one-dimensional surface corrugation. Our approach is based on simple wave interference and enables us to make quantitative predictions which have been experimentally confirmed at both the near infra-red and telecom ranges.

20 pages, 13 figures, submitted to New Journal of Physics, revised text

References in corpus (4)

• Efficient unidirectional nanoslit couplers for surface plasmons
• Theory of surface plasmon generation at nanoslit apertures
• Surface plasmons at single nanoholes in Au-films
• Scattering of surface plasmons by one-dimensional periodic nanoindented surfaces

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Multi-slot optical Yagi-Uda antenna for efficient unidirectional radiation to free space
• Optimal light harvesting structures at optical and infrared frequencies
• Transmittance of a subwavelength aperture flanked by a finite groove array \\ placed near the focus of a conventional lens
• Mechanisms for photon sorting based on slit-groove arrays
• he plasmon-polariton scattering by random-impedance surface defects: The interplay between localization and outflow