title: Nanowire plasmon excitation by adiabatic mode transformation.
abstract: We show with both experiment and calculation that highly confined surface plasmon polaritons can be efficiently excited on metallic nanowires through the process of mode transformation. One specific mode in a metallic waveguide is identified that adiabatically transforms to the confined nanowire mode as the waveguide width is reduced. Phase- and polarization-sensitive near-field investigation reveals the characteristic antisymmetric polarization nature of the mode and explains the coupling mechanism.
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanophotonics, FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMOLF), Science Park 113, 1098 XG, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. verhagen@amolf.nl
authors.forename: Ewold
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Verhagen
authors.forename: Marko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Spasenović
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Polman
authors.forename: L Kobus
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Kuipers