Open AccessFocusing and directing of surface plasmon polaritons by curved chains of nanoparticles
Author(s) -
Andrey B. Evlyukhin,
Sergey I. Bozhevolnyi,
А. Л. Степанов,
R. Kiyan,
Carsten Reinhardt,
Sven Passinger,
Boris N. Chichkov
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.15.016667
Subject(s) - surface plasmon polariton , optics , surface plasmon , excitation , discrete dipole approximation , dipole , nanophotonics , polariton , nanoparticle , plasmon , molecular physics , materials science , physics , scattering , nanotechnology , quantum mechanics
Excitation, focusing and directing of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) with curved chains of nanoparticles located on a metal surface is investigated both experimentally and theoretically. We demonstrate that, by using a relatively narrow laser beam (at normal incidence) interacting only with a portion of a curved chain of nanoparticles, one can excite an SPP beam whose divergence and propagation direction are dictated by the incident light spot size and its position along the chain. It is also found that the SPP focusing regime is strongly influenced by the chain inter-particle distance. Extensive numerical simulations of the configuration investigated experimentally are carried out for a wide set of system parameters by making use of the Green's tensor formalism and dipole approximation. Comparison of numerical results with experimental data shows good agreement with respect to the observed features in SPP focusing and directing, providing the guidelines for a proper choice of the system parameters.