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Title: When are surface plasmon polaritons excited in the Kretschmann-Raether configuration?

Abstract

It is widely believed that the reflection minimum in a Kretschmann-Raether experiment results from direct coupling into surface plasmon polariton modes. Our experimental results provide a surprising discrepancy between the leakage radiation patterns of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) launched on a layered gold/germanium film compared to the K-R minimum, clearly challenging this belief. We provide definitive evidence that the reflectance dip in K-R experiments does not correlate with excitation of an SPP mode, but rather corresponds to a particular type of perfectly absorbing (PA) mode. Results from rigorous electrodynamics simulations show that the PA mode can only exist under external driving, whereas the SPP can exist in regions free from direct interaction with the driving field. These simulations show that it is possible to indirectly excite propagating SPPs guided by the reflectance minimum in a K-R experiment, but demonstrate the efficiency can be lower by more than a factor of 3. We find that optimal coupling into the SPP can be guided by the square magnitude of the Fresnel transmission amplitude.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
  2. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Emory Univ., Atlanta, GA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1200853
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-06CH11357
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Scientific Reports
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 5; Journal Issue: 05; Journal ID: ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY

Citation Formats

Foley, IV, Jonathan J., Harutyunyan, Hayk, Rosenmann, Daniel, Divan, Ralu, Wiederrecht, Gary P., and Gray, Stephen K. When are surface plasmon polaritons excited in the Kretschmann-Raether configuration?. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.1038/srep09929.
Foley, IV, Jonathan J., Harutyunyan, Hayk, Rosenmann, Daniel, Divan, Ralu, Wiederrecht, Gary P., & Gray, Stephen K. When are surface plasmon polaritons excited in the Kretschmann-Raether configuration?. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep09929
Foley, IV, Jonathan J., Harutyunyan, Hayk, Rosenmann, Daniel, Divan, Ralu, Wiederrecht, Gary P., and Gray, Stephen K. 2015. "When are surface plasmon polaritons excited in the Kretschmann-Raether configuration?". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep09929. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1200853.
@article{osti_1200853,
title = {When are surface plasmon polaritons excited in the Kretschmann-Raether configuration?},
author = {Foley, IV, Jonathan J. and Harutyunyan, Hayk and Rosenmann, Daniel and Divan, Ralu and Wiederrecht, Gary P. and Gray, Stephen K.},
abstractNote = {It is widely believed that the reflection minimum in a Kretschmann-Raether experiment results from direct coupling into surface plasmon polariton modes. Our experimental results provide a surprising discrepancy between the leakage radiation patterns of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) launched on a layered gold/germanium film compared to the K-R minimum, clearly challenging this belief. We provide definitive evidence that the reflectance dip in K-R experiments does not correlate with excitation of an SPP mode, but rather corresponds to a particular type of perfectly absorbing (PA) mode. Results from rigorous electrodynamics simulations show that the PA mode can only exist under external driving, whereas the SPP can exist in regions free from direct interaction with the driving field. These simulations show that it is possible to indirectly excite propagating SPPs guided by the reflectance minimum in a K-R experiment, but demonstrate the efficiency can be lower by more than a factor of 3. We find that optimal coupling into the SPP can be guided by the square magnitude of the Fresnel transmission amplitude.},
doi = {10.1038/srep09929},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1200853}, journal = {Scientific Reports},
issn = {2045-2322},
number = 05,
volume = 5,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Apr 23 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Thu Apr 23 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}

Journal Article:
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Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 46 works
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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1 : a) Setup for performing K-R excitation of SPPs. A microscope objective is used to generate a range of incident wavevector components from a collimated monochromatic light source. The reflected light is collected by a CCD detector, which allows us to observe the characteristic minimum in the K-Rmore » experiment as a ring. (b) Setup for measuring leakage radiation of SPPs launched from above. Gold nanoparticles are used to scatter monochromatic incident light providing sufficient momentum to excite SPPs.« less

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Plasmonic layer-selective all-optical switching of magnetization with nanometer resolution
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Dual-color near-field imaging by means of thin-film plasmonic waveguide with precise beam control of multiple wavelengths
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Optical resonances in Kretschmann and Otto configurations
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Influence of the dielectric substrate on the effective optical constants of silver plasmonic films
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Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.