A new perspective on plasmonics: Confinement and propagation length of surface plasmons for different materials and geometries [A new perspective on materials for plasmonics]

Dastmalchi, Babak; Tassin, Philippe; Koschny, Thomas; Soukoulis, Costas M.

doi:10.1002/adom.201500446

Title: A new perspective on plasmonics: Confinement and propagation length of surface plasmons for different materials and geometries [A new perspective on materials for plasmonics]

Journal Article · 20 September 2015 · Advanced Optical Materials

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/adom.201500446 · OSTI ID:1350056

Dastmalchi, Babak ^[1]; Tassin, Philippe ^[2]; Koschny, Thomas ^[3]; Soukoulis, Costas M. ^[1]

Ames Lab. and Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States); Institute of Electronic Structure and Lasers (IESL), Crete (Greece)
Chalmers Univ., Goteborg (Sweden)
Ames Lab. and Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)

Surface-plasmon polaritons are electromagnetic waves propagating on the surface of a metal. Thanks to subwavelength confinement, they can concentrate optical energy on the micrometer or even nanometer scale, enabling new applications in bio-sensing, optical interconnects, and nonlinear optics, where small footprint and strong field concentration are essential. The major obstacle in developing plasmonic applications is dissipative loss, which limits the propagation length of surface plasmons and broadens the bandwidth of surface-plasmon resonances. Here, a new analysis of plasmonic materials and geometries is presented which fully considers the tradeoff between propagation length and degree of confinement. It is based on a two-dimensional analysis of two independent figures of merit and the analysis is applied to relevant plasmonic materials, e.g., noble metals, aluminum, silicon carbide, doped semiconductors, graphene, etc. Furthermore, the analysis provides guidance on how to improve the performance of any particular plasmonic application and substantially eases the selection of the plasmonic material.

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Research Organization:: Ames Laboratory (AMES), Ames, IA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-07CH11358

OSTI ID:: 1350056

Report Number(s):: IS-J--8816

Journal Information:: Advanced Optical Materials, Journal Name: Advanced Optical Materials Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 4; ISSN 2195-1071

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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