Terahertz surface plasmon-polariton propagation and focusing on periodically corrugated metal wires

In this Letter, we show how the dispersion relation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) propagating along a perfectly conducting wire can be tailored by corrugating its surface with a periodic array of radial grooves. In this way, highly localized SPPs can be sustained in the terahertz region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Importantly, the propagation characteristics of these spoof SPPs can be controlled by the surface geometry, opening the way to important applications such as energy concentration on cylindrical wires and superfocusing using conical structures.     

介质填充浅槽周期结构表面上的太赫兹表面等离子体激元

通过在金属表面刻成浅的垂直凹槽,并在槽内填充不同的介质,对金属表面浅槽周期结构上传播的表面等离子体激元的色散特性与填充介质的关系进行了研究.研究表明通过在周期凹槽内填充介质可以有效降低人工表面等离子体激元的渐近频率,并增强金属表面对电磁场的约束.分析了太赫兹波段金属的吸收损耗对人工表面等离子体激元特性的影响,结果显示基于填充介质的浅槽周期表面结构可以获得长距离传输以及场的亚波长约束.通过对波传输的数值仿真,验证了该表面结构在太赫兹波段良好的导波能力.这种表面结构对太赫兹波段新型集成导波器件的设计具有参考价值.     

介质填充浅槽周期结构表面上的太赫兹表面等离子体激元

通过在金属表面刻成浅的垂直凹槽,并在槽内填充不同的介质,对金属表面浅槽周期结构上传播的表面等离子体激元的色散特性与填充介质的关系进行了研究.研究表明通过在周期凹槽内填充介质可以有效降低人工表面等离子体激元的渐近频率,并增强金属表面对电磁场的约束.分析了太赫兹波段金属的吸收损耗对人工表面等离子体激元特性的影响,结果显示基于填充介质的浅槽周期表面结构可以获得长距离传输以及场的亚波长约束.通过对波传输的数值仿真,验证了该表面结构在太赫兹波段良好的导波能力.这种表面结构对太赫兹波段新型集成导波器件的设计具有参考价值.     

Optical properties of metallo-dielectric deep trench gratings: role of surface plasmons and Wood-Rayleigh anomaly

We present optical measurements performed on a gold film deposited on deep subwavelength grooves etched in a quartz substrate at visible wavelengths where the Wood-Rayleigh (WR) anomaly and surface plasmon polaritons (SPs) are well separated. The measurements show that transmission of TM-polarized light through the slit array vanishes when SPs are excited at the air-metal interface, whereas the WR anomaly appears as small peaks.     

Modification of the photoluminescence anisotropy of semiconductor nanowires by coupling to surface plasmon polaritons

We demonstrate efficient modification of the polarized light emission from single semiconductor nanowires by coupling this emission to surface plasmon polaritons on a metal grating. The polarization anisotropy of the emitted photoluminescence from single nanowires is compared for wires deposited on silica, a flat gold film, and a shallow gold grating. By varying the orientation of the nanowire with respect to the grating grooves, the large intrinsic polarization anisotropy can be either suppressed or enhanced. This modification is interpreted by the appearance of an additional emission channel induced by surface plasmon polaritons and their conversion to p-polarized radiation at the grating.     

Duality of Spoof Surface Plasmon Polaritons on the Complementary Structures of Ultrathin Metal Films

Complementary metal structures manifest a remarkable scattering feature, known as Babinet's principle. Meanwhile, for surface modes confined to one or two dimensions, the relation between the modes on complementary structures has not been thoroughly studied. Here, spoof surface plasmon polaritons supported on complementary metal films are systematically investigated. The duality of electromagnetism guarantees that these surface modes on complementary metal films possess precisely the same dispersion regardless of the geometry of the grooves, which is confirmed by both numerical simulations and experimental measurements. This work may open another avenue for spoof surface plasmon polaritons in both the theoretical and practical aspects.     

Why metallic surfaces with grooves a few nanometers deep and wide may strongly absorb visible light

It is theoretically shown that nanometric silver lamellar gratings present very strong visible light absorption inside the grooves, leading to electric field enhancement of several orders of magnitude. It is due to the excitation of quasistatic surface plasmon polaritons with particular small penetration depth in the metal. This may explain the abnormal optical absorption observed a long time ago on almost flat Ag films. Surface enhanced Raman scattering in rough metallic films could also be due to the excitation of such quasistatic plasmon polaritons in grain boundaries or notches of the films.     

基于塔姆激元-表面等离极化激元混合模式的单缝加凹槽纳米结构的增强透射

金属单缝纳米结构因为结构简单、易于集成,常用在基于表面等离极化激元(surface plasmon polaritons,SPPs)的纳米结构中构建光源.但是,金属亚波长单缝结构一直存在透射率低的问题,如何提高其透射率一直是研究的重点.为了更好地提高金属亚波长单缝的透射率,本文对之前文献提出的分布式布拉格反射镜(distributed bragg reflector,DBR)和金属银薄膜纳米缝结构进行改进,在金属银薄膜两侧设计凹槽.当TM偏振光由DBR侧入射至DBR-银纳米缝结构时,DBR-银膜界面上和银膜入射侧凹槽一起激发的塔姆激元(Tamm plasmon polaritons,TPPs)和SPPs,以及纳米缝和银膜出射侧凹槽对的SPPs同时激发,利用凹槽激发的SPPs和银膜表面处的TPPs-SPPs混合模式的干涉相长耦合作用,通过塔姆激元的局域场增强效应和两侧凹槽与单纳米缝的干涉相长耦合作用进一步提高了表面等离极化激元模式的激发效率,再加上纳米缝中的类法布里-珀罗腔共振效应,使纳米缝的透射率得到增强.本文采用有限元方法研究了DBR-银纳米缝结构上单纳米缝加凹槽的透射特性.经过一系列参数优化,使DBR-银纳米缝凹槽结构的最大透射率增加到0.22,相对于TiO_2-银纳米缝结构的透射率(0.01)提高了22倍,比文献[23]得到的最大透射率0.166有所提高.研究结果在纳米光源设计、光子集成电路和光学信号传输等相关领域具有一定的应用价值.     

Enhancement of scattering of surface plasmon polaritons by surface defects: Technique and results

The intensities of scattering of surface plasmon polaritons by regular surface structures significantly exceed (by several orders of magnitude) the intensities of scattering of evanescent surface waves from these structures. When plasmon polaritons are scattered by diffraction grating grooves a few micrometers wide, the scattering from the trailing edge of a grating groove greatly exceeds the scattering level from the groove leading edge. Some of our original developments are presented that make it possible to put into effect an inexpensive software-hardware optical complex with a wide dynamic range, high sensitivity, and digital lock-in detection based on the use of a computer sound card.     

Surface Plasmon Polaritons of Two-Dimensional Three-Order Dendritic Structures

We study surface plasmon polaritons excited on two-dimensional three-order dendritic structures. Previous studies show that split ring resonators (SRRs)
can be used to obtain magnetic resonance, thus sustaining surface waves behaving like surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). In this paper, we obtain detailed results on surface plasmon polaritons of several different grating structures and theoretically prove that this kind of structures can sustain SPPs. Besides, since dendritic structures can be fabricated by double template-assisted electrochemical deposition, it is worth noting that fabrication of SPP-based materials might be much easier.     

基于厚金属狭缝阵列的表面等离子激元光刻

提出一种利用厚金属狭缝阵列耦合激发表面等离子激元制作非周期图形的纳米光刻模型.采用时域有限差分电磁场模拟仿真软件研究了厚金属狭缝阵列中表面等离子激元的激发、模式选择以及光刻胶中的光场分布.结果表明,通过优化厚金属狭缝阵列结构参量和匹配介质参量可有效抑制表面等离子激元在光栅狭缝出口处的发散,增加表面等离子激元的穿透深度,...     

Theoretical reexamination of the cross conversion between surface plasmon polaritons and quasi-cylindrical waves

The cross conversion between surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) and quasi-cylindrical waves (CWs) is theoretically reexamined. Except for the CW-to-SPP conversion, we find the SPP-to-CW conversion, as well as the reflection and transmission of the CW, plays an indispensable role in the interaction between SPPs and light via periodic grooves. The completeness of the whole scattering coefficients is emphasized by an SPP-CW model proposed to quantitatively predict the SPP excitation efficiency for any number of periodic grooves.     

周期地嵌入电介质球壳的金属表层的表面等离子激元及其与电介质腔体模式的耦合

通过观察金属底板中周期地嵌入电介质球壳的体系的光学吸收性质，研究了表面等离子激元 以及与其他电磁模式的耦合特性.在这种周期结构的金属表面，发现存在两种响应频率，分 别对应于表面等离子激元模式和金属中的电介质腔体模式.在这些响应频率上，可观察到与 它们相对应的吸收峰.由于金属的表面模式不能与平面入射光直接耦合，而腔体模式与平面 入射光和表面等离子激元模式的耦合一般较弱，因而通常情况下这些吸收峰的峰值有限.然 而，通过调整体系中的某些参数，可以使腔体模式和表面模式的频率非常接近，这时二者之 间的耦合强度将大大提高.此时，在相应的频率附近可观察到极强的吸收峰.详细地研究了介 质球壳的物理和几何参数对此共振吸收的影响. 关键词： 腔体模式 表面等离子体模式 共振吸收     

Tapered dielectric structure in metal as a wavelength-selective surface plasmon polariton focuser

Symmetric tapered dielectric structures in metal have demonstrated applications such as the nanofocusing of surface plasmon polaritons, as well as the waveguiding of V-channel polaritons. Yet the fabrication of smooth-surfaced tapered structure remains an obstacle to most researchers. We have successfully developed a handy method to fabricate metal-sandwiched tapered nanostructures simply with electron beam lithography. Though these structures are slightly different from conventional symmetric V-shaped structures, systematic simulations show that similar functionality of surface plasmon polariton nanofocusing can still be achieved. When parameters are properly selected, wavelength-selective nanofocusing of surface plasmon polaritons can be obtained.     

Resonant infrared transmission through SiC films

Resonant transmission through metallic films is observed when a periodic array of holes is drilled. This phenomenon has been attributed to surface plasmon polaritons. We study a similar system made of an array of slits in a SiC film supporting surface phonon polaritons. We find a resonant transmission in the infrared. The role of surface waves is analyzed. We find that surface waves are excited at resonance but are not a necessary condition to obtain a resonant transmission.     

Tuning of plasmonic behaviours in coupled metallic nanotube arrays

We theoretically investigate the influence of the shape of nanoholes on plasmonic behaviours in coupled elliptical metallic nanotube arrays by the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method.We study the structure in two cases:one for the array aligned along the minor axis and the other for the array aligned along the major axis.It is found that the optical properties and plasmonic effects can be tuned by the effective surface charges as a result of the variation in the minor axis length.Based on the localized nature of electric field distributions,we also clearly show that the presence of localized plasmon resonant modes originates from multipolar plasmon polaritons and a large magnitude of opposing surface charges build up in the gap between adjacent nanotubes.     

Negative-index dispersion and accidental mode degeneracy in an asymmetric spoof-insulator-spoof waveguide

It has been recently demonstrated that negative-index dispersion and mode degeneracy can be achieved by manipulating a spoof-insulator-spoof(SIS) waveguide. In this paper, we propose a new SIS waveguide, which is composed of two spoof surface plasmon polaritons(SSPPs) waveguides drilled with periodic rhomboidal grooves. Both the symmetric and asymmetric cases are investigated. Our simulation results show that the asymmetric SIS waveguides are more significant.By tailoring the tilt of the rhomboidal grooves, the negative-index dispersion can be achieved and the microwave band gap(MBG) can be effectively modulated. At a critical tilt, there appears an accidental mode degeneracy at the edge of the first Brillouin zone. The excitation and propagation of the two coupled modes sustained by the asymmetric SIS waveguides are also demonstrated.     

Terahertz superconducting plasmonic hole array

We demonstrate a superconductor array of subwavelength holes with active thermal control over the resonant transmission induced by surface plasmon polaritons. The array was lithographically fabricated on a high-temperature yttrium barium copper oxide superconductor and characterized by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. We observe a clear transition from a virtual excitation of the surface plasmon mode to a real surface plasmon mode. The highly controllable superconducting plasmonic crystals may find promising applications in the design of low-loss, large- dynamic-range amplitude modulation and surface-plasmon-based terahertz devices.     

基于厚金属狭缝阵列的表面等离子激元光刻

提出一种利用厚金属狭缝阵列耦合激发表面等离子激元制作非周期图形的纳米光刻模型.采用时域有限差分电磁场模拟仿真软件研究了厚金属狭缝阵列中表面等离子激元的激发、模式选择以及光刻胶中的光场分布.结果表明,通过优化厚金属狭缝阵列结构参量和匹配介质参量可有效抑制表面等离子激元在光栅狭缝出口处的发散,增加表面等离子激元的穿透深度,可获得高分辨率的较大曝光深度的周期和非周期纳米图形,可为纳米激光直写技术提供有益的借鉴.