Open AccessSelective excitation of surface plasmon modes propagating in Ag nanowires
Author(s) -
Mo Song,
Jean Dellinger,
Olivier Demichel,
Mickaël Buret,
Gérard Colas des Francs,
Douguo Zhang,
Erik Dujardin,
Alexandre Bouhélier
Publication year - 2017
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.25.009138
Subject(s) - nanowire , plasmon , surface plasmon , excitation , optics , materials science , surface plasmon polariton , polarization (electrochemistry) , localized surface plasmon , optoelectronics , physics , chemistry , quantum mechanics
Surface plasmon modes propagating in metal nanowires are conveniently excited by focusing a laser beam on one extremity of the nanowire. We find that the precise positioning of the nanowire inside the focal region drastically influences the excitation efficiency of the different SPP modes sustained by the plasmonic waveguide. We demonstrate a spatially selective excitation of bound and leaky surface plasmon modes with excitation maps that strongly depend on the orientation of the incident linear polarization. We discuss this modal selection by considering the inhomogeneous distribution of the field components inside the focus. Our finding provides a way to discriminate the effective indices of the modes offering thus an increased coupling agility for future nanowire-based plasmonic architectures.