Open AccessHigher-order surface plasmon contributions to passive and active plasmonic interferometry
Author(s) -
Dongfang Li,
Jing Feng,
Domenico Pacifici
Publication year - 2016
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.24.027309
Subject(s) - optics , surface plasmon polariton , surface plasmon , plasmon , interferometry , total internal reflection , astronomical interferometer , materials science , physics , scattering , light scattering , finite difference time domain method
We compare the intensity modulation of passive light transmission and active fluorescence emission in planar plasmonic interferometers consisting of a nano-scale hole flanked by circular grooves etched in a silver film. Discrete fast Fourier transform applied to plasmonic interferograms - i.e., optical interferograms obtained by varying the propagation phase of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) - reveals higher-order interference effects that can be enhanced by optimizing in-plane SPP scattering and reflection. The experimental SPP dispersion relations agree with finite-difference frequency-domain calculations. Finally, we show that odd-order SPP contributions can be suppressed by reducing the spatial coherence of the incident beam.