Decay of non radiative surface plasmons into light on rough silver films. Comparison of experimental and theoretical results

The polarisation dependence of light emitted at different angles from the surface of thin silver films is measured. The experimental results are compared with theory. It is demonstrated that surface roughness is responsible for the light emission and not bulk inhomogeneities of the silver film.     

Electrooptic reflection with surface plasmons

Electrooptic reflection with surface plasmons is studied both experimentally and theoretically. An attenuated total reflection (ATR) geometry is used in which a quartz electrooptic crystal onto which a thin Ag film has been evaporated is contacted to the hypotenuse face of a high-index prism. Modulation in the ATR of an He–Ne beam near the angle for surface plasmon excitation is observed when a low-frequency electric field is applied to the quartz crystal. Experiments have been done with both single and multiple boundary surface waves. The angular spectra show phase reversal structure due to the interference of the modulated reflected wave with the ATR wave. The modulated reflectance is calculated directly from a well-known solution to the boundary value problem in nonlinear optics. Good quantitative agreement with the observations is obtained.     

Characteristics of light emission from surface plasmons based on rectangular silver gratings

We investigated the characteristics of transmitted light from propagating surface plasmons based on rectangular silver gratings. The results calculated by rigorous coupled-wave analysis presented that silver diffraction gratings can produce significant transmittance and conversion efficiency, comparable to the case of dielectric gratings. Especially, silver gratings optimized at a wide range of grating thickness and period may lead to an improved diffraction efficiency larger than 64%. Moreover, the effect of silver oxide layer on the transmittance was examined and a bimetallic structure with a thin gold coating was introduced to prevent an oxidation of silver substrates. As a practical sensor application, silver grating-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) configuration showed an enhanced sensitivity associated with an increase of surface reaction area and strong excitations of local plasmon fields, outperforming a conventional thin-film-based SPR structure.     

Surface polariton reflection and transmission at a rough surface

A study of surface polariton electric fields incident on a periodic rough surface is done. Expression for the components of the diffuse reflected and transmitted fields are calculated to first order in the roughness amplitude. The frequency dependence of the reflection and transmission factors is found to have a structure within the surface polariton frequency range. Results are illustrated by a rough surface GaP-vacuum system.     

Multiple scattering of plasmons at rough surfaces

We investigated the polarization and angle dependence of the scattered light intensity of surface plasma oscillations (SPO) propagating along rough silver surfaces. The rough silver films were prepared using the methods of pre-evaporating CaF₂ and silver on heated substrates. The scattered light intensity of both systems is explained by surface scattering effects. Differences of the light intensities between the rough silver films prepared by the two methods mainly were observed in “restlight intensities”, which cannot be described by first-order scattering theories. We explain these differences by higher order scattering effects.     

Influence of surface properties on the structure of granular silver films and excitation of localized plasmons

Granular silver films deposited on a thin insulating film of amorphous hydrogenated carbon (a-C:H) and transparent conducting electrode (polycrystalline indium tin oxide (ITO) layer) have been investigated by spectroscopy and microscopy methods. The extinction spectra of silver films on the surface of these materials are found to be significantly different. An annealing of silver films causes a blue shift of the peak of plasmon resonance band in the spectrum of silver nanoparticles: by 16 nm on the a-C:H surface and by 94 nm on the ITO surface. Silver films on the surface of a-C:H films are characterized by a narrower band in the extinction spectrum, which is peaked at 446 nm. The changes observed in the optical density of Ag films are related to the change in size and area of nanoparticles. The results of spectral studies of Ag films are in agreement with the data on the nanostructure obtained by scanning electron microscopy and statistical image processing. The spectra of granular silver films are shown to correlate well with the nanoparticle distribution function over the film area.     

Dispersion relation of surface plasmons on gold- and silver gratings

The propagation velocity and damping of surface plasmons on sinusoidally modulated gold- and silver surfaces with different grating constants (ca. 4000 Å, 8000 Å and 15000 Å) are measured at wavelengths of 6471 Å and 5682 Å as function of the amplitude of the grating (up to ca. 300 Å). Earlier measurements of the changes of the dispersion relation produced by the sinusoidal profile could be improved by reducing the contribution of a second harmonic to the grating profile to less than about 0.06. Observed and calculated data, obtained with the Rayleigh method, show good agreement.     

Variation of attenuated total reflection due to the birefringence of liquid crystals by excitation of surface plasmons

Attenuated total reflection (ATR) is a prominent effect in examining the excitation of surface plasmons. The Kretschmann–Raether and Otto configurations are implemented to generate surface plasmons and to examine the change of the refractive index of liquid crystals (LCs) by an applied field. A mixture of nematic and cholesteric liquid crystals is sandwiched between two glass substrates coated with conducting films. The minimum ATR angle changes by only 1° as the applied voltage increases to as much as 30 V (corresponding to 6×10⁵ Vm^-1), which does not agree with the calculation based on field-induced refractive-index change. This fact suggests that the orientation of LC molecules adjacent to an electrode surface is unaffected by the external field because of the strong-anchoring effect. A Jones-matrix simulation together with a multilayered structure of a LC clearly adduces this fact. Received: 30 November 2001 / Revised version: 1 February 2002 / Published online: 14 March 2002     

Study of photons reflection on rough surface

The purpose of this paper is to study the probability distribution of photon reflection on rough surface experimentally and theoretically. We showed experimentally that for photon reflection on rough surface, the distribution was characterized by the ratio τ/σ, which was defined as the “correlation roughness” of the reflecting surface. Quantitative experimental results based on single-photon counter are compared to the Monte Carlo simulation results. At last, how the intensity of low light-level can be retrieved from photon counting results using improved models is shown.     

Enhanced backward scattering by surface plasmons on silver film

Surface plasmon and its potential application in nanotechnology have attracted a remarkable amount of attention recently due to their novel properties. In this work we present an angularly resolved surface plasmon scattering study on a primitive metal surface. Using a reversed attenuated total reflection (RATR) setup in the experiment, we obtained a double-crescent shaped and enhanced scattering pattern at far field. The scattering pattern as a function on the variation of angle and polarization of incident beam are studied. Both theoretical and experimental results reveal an enhanced backward scattering by surface plasmon excitation. Consequently, it is shown that this angularly resolved surface plasmon scattering measurement can be employed for resolving a richness of nanoscale surface textures. PACS 42.79.-e; 42.30.Wb; 78.20.Ci     

Bolometric observation of nonradiative decay of surface plasmons in silver

A bolometric technique was used to observe the nonradiative decay of surface plasmons in a silver film. This technique allowed us to separate the radiative and nonradiative relaxations of the plasmons and to determine the radiative quantum efficiency. It is suitable for both cw and pulsed laser beams and for both polarized and nonpolarized light.     

高考物理选择题的解析技巧

选择题不需要解答过程，只要解答结果，因此快速、准确解答选择题能赢得宝贵的时间．近几年的高考选择题出现了既考查能力、方法又考查基础知识的难度较大的题目．对这些试题的求解则需要迅速捕捉试题特征、以此突破，形成正确的解题思路，达到事半功倍之效果．     

光的反射、折射和全反射演示器

利用自制教具演示了光的反射、折射和全反射现象 ,克服了传统实验仪器的不足 .本文介绍了教具的制作和使用方法     

Polarization studies of radiation emitted by surface plasmons in silver

Measurements are reported on the polarization of radiation emitted by the roughness induced decay of nonradiative surface plasmons optically excited by light in thin Ag films. This radiation is of mixed polarization when the incident light is p-polarized. The s-polarized component of the radiation is observed to be considerably less intense than the p-polarized component.     

Ultrafast control of grating-assisted light coupling to surface plasmons

We demonstrate subpicosecond control over the coupling of free-space radiation to surface-plasmon polaritons using 830 and 500 nm period gold gratings. Thermal changes to the electron distribution following irradiation by 100 fs, 810 nm pulses produce a shift of the 570 nm plasmon resonance by ~0.75 nm with reflectivity change up to 6% and decay time of ~1 ps.     

小掠射角下高斯谱粗糙海面反射损失建模

在散射能量基本为前向散射且集中在“镜面反射”方向的情况下,粗糙海面反射损失建模是声呐信号传播建模必不可少的一部分,尤其对于中远距离下浅海或者存在表面声道的水声环境,小掠射角(10°以内)下的粗糙海面反射损失建模尤为重要。首先基于高斯谱粗糙海面模型,通过高海况下的声传播试验数据处理分析了粗糙海面边界条件下的Ramsurf声传播模型的有效性,进而以Ramsurf声传播模型为基准,在小掠射角下,比较分析了Kirchhoff近似(KA)海面反射损失模型和小斜率近似(SSA)海面反射损失模型,数值计算结果表明,在小掠射角下SSA海面反射损失模型与Ramsurf计算结果较为吻合,是比较精确的海面反射损失模型。     

表面等离激元与磁表面等离激元

金属微纳结构体系中的表面等离激元以及磁表面等离激元因其独特的光学特性吸引了研究者们的极大兴趣,成为当前的热点研究领域之一.文章对表面等离激元尤其是磁表面等离激元的特点、基本现象、新颖效应及其应用研究前景的最新发展进行了介绍.