Imaging surface plasmon polaritons using proximal self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots

Abstract

We present optical investigations of hybrid plasmonic nanosystems consisting of lithographically defined plasmonic Au-waveguides or beamsplitters on GaAs substrates coupled to proximal self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots. We designed a sample structure that enabled us to precisely tune the distance between quantum dots and the sample surface during nano-fabrication and demonstrated that non-radiative processes do not play a major role for separations down to ∼10 nm. A polarized laser beam focused on one end of the plasmonic nanostructure generates propagating surface plasmon polaritons that, in turn, create electron-hole pairs in the GaAs substrate during propagation. These free carriers are subsequently captured by the quantum dots ∼25 nm below the surface, giving rise to luminescence. The intensity of the spectrally integrated quantum dot luminescence is used to image the propagating plasmon modes. As the waveguide width reduces from 5 μm to 1 μm, we clearly observe different plasmonic modes at the remote waveguide end, enabling their direct imaging in real space. This imaging technique is applied to a plasmonic beamsplitter facilitating the determination of the splitting ratio between the two beamsplitter output ports as the interaction length Li is varied. A splitting ratio of 50:50 is observed for Li∼9±1 μm and 1 μm wide waveguides for excitation energies close to the GaAs band edge. Our experimental findings are in good agreement with mode profile and finite difference time domain simulations for both waveguides and beamsplitters.