title: Observation of plasmon propagation, redirection, and fan-out in silver nanowires.
abstract: We report the coupling of free-space photons (vacuum wavelength of 830 nm) to surface plasmon modes of a silver nanowire. The launch of propagating plasmons, and the subsequent emission of photons, is selective and occurs only at ends and other discontinuities of the nanowire. In addition, we observe that the nanowires redirect the plasmons through turns of radii as small as 4 microm. We exploit the radiating nature of discontinuities to find a plasmon propagation length >3 +/- 1 microm. Finally, we observe that interwire plasmon coupling occurs for overlapping wires, demonstrating plasmon fan-out at subwavelength scales.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Yale University, P.O. Box 208284, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA. aric.sanders@yale.edu
authors.forename: Aric W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Sanders
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Routenberg
authors.forename: Benjamin J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Wiley
authors.forename: Younan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Eric R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Dufresne
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Reed
mesh_terms: D008027:Light; D046911:Macromolecular Substances / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry; D008422:Materials Testing; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D043942:Nanotubes / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D012834:Silver / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D012834:Silver