title: Silver nanowires as surface plasmon resonators.
abstract: We report on chemically prepared silver nanowires (diameters around 100 nm) sustaining surface plasmon modes with wavelengths shortened to about half the value of the exciting light. As we find by scattered light spectroscopy and near-field optical microscopy, the nonradiating character of these modes together with minimized damping due to the well developed wire crystal structure gives rise to large values of surface plasmon propagation length and nanowire end face reflectivity of about 10 microm and 25%, respectively. We demonstrate that these properties allow us to apply the nanowires as efficient surface plasmon Fabry-Perot resonators.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics, Karl-Franzens-University, 8010 Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ditlbacher
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hohenau
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kreibig
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rogers
authors.forename: Ferdinand
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hofer
authors.forename: Franz R
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Aussenegg
authors.forename: Joachim R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Krenn
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008027:Light; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D010316:Particle Size; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D012834:Silver / Q000737:chemistry*; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D014159:Transducers
chemical_list: D012834:Silver