Subwavelength light confinement with surface plasmon polaritons

Contents......Page 7
General introduction......Page 13
Evanescent waves......Page 14
Surface plasmon polaritons......Page 15
Field confinement......Page 18
Theoretical formalism......Page 19
MIM and IMI geometries......Page 22
Trade-off between confinement and loss......Page 25
Concentrating light with surface plasmon polaritons......Page 27
Localized resonances in annular apertures......Page 28
Probing the near field......Page 30
Outline of this thesis......Page 31
Introduction......Page 33
Sample fabrication......Page 34
Near-field experiments......Page 35
Polarization dependence of probe emission......Page 36
Single output slit: Interference of different SPP modes......Page 37
Excitation asymmetry......Page 38
Two-dimensional interference model......Page 39
MIM-SPP dispersion relation......Page 40
Conclusions......Page 42
Introduction......Page 43
Surface plasmon waveguide-based metamaterials......Page 44
Theoretical formalism......Page 45
Lossy dispersion and the necessary condition for negative indices......Page 48
The MIM waveguide as a negative index material......Page 49
IIM and IMI waveguides as multimode metamaterials......Page 51
Mapping plasmonic material indices and absorption......Page 53
Ag/GaP and Ag/Si3N4 MIM metamaterials......Page 54
Ag/GaP-based IIM and IMI waveguides......Page 56
Conclusions......Page 59
Introduction......Page 61
Er upconversion luminescence......Page 62
Fabrication of Ag microstructures......Page 64
Results and discussion......Page 65
Conclusions......Page 68
Introduction......Page 69
Sample fabrication......Page 71
Optical measurements......Page 72
Results and discussion......Page 73
Power dependence......Page 74
Absence of cutoff......Page 76
Simulation methods......Page 78
Simulation results: Three-dimensional nanofocusing......Page 80
Comparison between excitation in substrate or in air......Page 82
Conclusions......Page 83
Introduction......Page 85
Surface plasmon polaritons on a metal cylinder......Page 86
Computation method for complex waveguiding geometries......Page 87
Stripe waveguides in a homogeneous dielectric environment......Page 88
SPP modes in stripe waveguides on a dielectric substrate......Page 89
The symmetry of the dielectric surrounding......Page 90
Phase- and polarization-sensitive near-field microscopy......Page 92
Coupling to nanowire SPPs......Page 94
Polarization nature of the nanowire mode......Page 95
Wavevector of SPPs on nanowires......Page 97
Coupling efficiency......Page 98
Calculated efficiency: comparison to conical geometry......Page 99
Conclusions......Page 100
Introduction......Page 103
SPPs on a metal surface covered with a thin dielectric film......Page 104
The geometrical optics approximation......Page 107
Comparing the geometrical optics approximation to FDTD......Page 109
Subwavelength confinement......Page 111
Conclusions......Page 112
Introduction......Page 113
Methods......Page 115
Field enhancement in hole arrays......Page 117
Quantifying field enhancement......Page 119
Dependence of enhancement on structural parameters......Page 120
The Fano model: far field transmission and near field enhancement......Page 121
Field enhancement in arrays of annular apertures......Page 124
Angle dependence of field enhancement in annular apertures......Page 125
Conclusions......Page 126
Introduction......Page 129
Sample fabrication......Page 130
Optical measurements......Page 131
Results......Page 132
Discussion......Page 135
Conclusions......Page 136
Coupling light to the nanoscale......Page 137
Nanowire directional couplers......Page 139
Light absorption in plasmonic solar cells......Page 143
Adiabatic concentration of light from free-space......Page 145
Upconversion for photovoltaics......Page 148
Localized surface plasmon resonance sensing......Page 149
Enhanced spectroscopy......Page 150
Towards a three-dimensional left-handed material......Page 152
Appendix Waveguide modes in multilayer geometries: TE polarization......Page 157
References......Page 159
Summary......Page 173
Samenvatting......Page 177
List of publications......Page 181
Dankwoord......Page 183
About the author......Page 185