title: Measurement and reduction of damping in plasmonic nanowires.
abstract: We report on a spectroscopic study of surface plasmon damping and group velocity in polycrystalline silver and gold nanowires. By comparing to single-crystalline wires and by using different substrates, we quantitatively deduce the relative damping contributions due to metal crystallinity and absorption in the substrate. Compared to absorbing substrates, we find strongly reduced plasmonic damping for polycrystalline nanowires on quartz substrates, enabling the application of such wires for plasmonic waveguide networks.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics, Karl-Franzens-University, Universitätsplatz 5, 8010 Graz, Austria. primoz.kusar@uni-graz.at
authors.forename: Primoz
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kusar
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gruber
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hohenau
authors.forename: Joachim R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Krenn
mesh_terms: D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D010316:Particle Size; D012834:Silver / Q000737:chemistry*; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D012834:Silver; D006046:Gold