Abstract
Here we report on both simulations and experimental results on propagation and transmission of Surface Plasmon Polaritons (SPPs) through tunable gaps which were initially motivated by excitation of SPPs on a periodic arrangement of nanowires with mechanically tuneable periodicity. The general ability to vary the two-dimensional lattice constant results in an additional degree of freedom, permitting excitation of SPP’s for any combination of wavelength and angle of incidence within the tuning range of the system. Fabrication of the tunable system includes a transition from a continuously metal coated surface to small metal ribbons which can be separated from each other as a result of mechanical strain applied to the flexible PDMS substrate. This also results in the creation of tuneable gaps between the metal ribbons and variations in the thickness of the metal coatings. In order to explain the propagation of SPPs through such gaps we have employed Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) simulations of SPPs through model systems which contain gaps with varying depths and metal fillings.
Highlights
Planar waveguides and photonic crystal structures are being intensively investigated as primary solutions for integrated photonic devices
The manufacturing of the desired tuneable structures is a multistep procedure described in great detail in the supplement of F
The simulations presented here confirm that the introduction of small gaps into an originally uninterrupted metal surfaces do not lead to significant alterations of the Surface Plasmon Polaritons (SPPs) propagation behaviour especially at the metal/air interface apart from losses that scale smoothly with the gap width
Summary
Planar waveguides and photonic crystal structures are being intensively investigated as primary solutions for integrated photonic devices. There may be an alternative approach to the manufacturing of highly integrated optical devices with structural elements that are smaller than the wavelength, which enables strong guidance and manipulation of light—the use of metallic and metallodielectric nanostructures in conjunction with Surface Plasmon Polaritons (SPPs). This approach is branded as “the big step” in nanotechnology. The interaction of light with matter in nano- and mesostructured metallic interfaces has led to a new branch of photonics called plasmonics [1]. SPP’s play an important role in the fundamental understanding of quantum behavior at nano- and meso-scales [2,3,4,5,6], as well as in the development of novel spectroscopic techniques, such as Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) [7,8] and ultra surface sensitive methods, from Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) on nanostructured surfaces [9,10] to subwavelength optics [11]
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