Excitation of surface plasmon polaritons on titanium nitride thin films through energy transfer from dye molecules

Abstract

We have fabricated titanium nitride (TiN) thin films on sapphire substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique, and excited surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) on TiN thin films by energy transfer from dye molecules. The system was fabricated by depositing a thin polymer layer containing rhodamine 6G (R6G) on a TiN thin film, separated by a thin spacer made of silica. The SPPs were excited by irradiating the dye layer with a blue laser. We successfully collected radiation from SPPs by converting them into far-field radiation using a prism coupling technique.