Coupling efficiency of light to surface plasmon polariton for single subwavelength holes in a gold film.
The excitation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) by focusing a laser beam on single subwavelength holes opened in a thin gold film is studied both experimentally and theoretically. By means of leakage radiation microscopy, quantitative measurements of the light-SPP coupling efficiency are performed for holes with different sizes and shapes. The system is studied theoretically by using a modal expansion method to calculate the fraction of the incident energy which is scattered by the hole into a surface plasmon. We demonstrate that a single subwavelength hole can be used to generate SPP with an efficiency up to 28%.
Baudrion
Anne-Laure
AL
Karl-Franzens University and Erwin Schrödinger Institute for Nanoscale Research, A-8010 Graz, Austria.Anne.Baudrion@uni-graz.at
de Léon-Pérez
Fernando
F
Mahboub
Oussama
O
Hohenau
Andreas
A
Ditlbacher
Harald
H
García-Vidal
Francisco J
FJ
Dintinger
José
J
Ebbesen
Thomas W
TW
Martin-Moreno
Luis
L
Krenn
Joachim R
JR
D003198:Computer Simulation; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D008027:Light; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012031:Refractometry / Q000379:methods*; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000379:methods*
D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D006046:Gold