TY - JOUR

T1 - "flying Plasmons"

T2 - Fabry-Pérot Resonances in Levitated Silver Nanowires

AU - Schell, Andreas W.

AU - Kuhlicke, Alexander

AU - Kewes, Günter

AU - Benson, Oliver

N1 - Funding information: Funding by DFG (Sfb951, Project B2) and the Einstein Foundation Berlin is acknowledged. O.B. thanks CNPq Brasil (science without borders program). A.W.S. thanks JSPS for the fellowship for overseas researchers. The authors thank JCMwave for support.

PY - 2017/11/15

Y1 - 2017/11/15

N2 - Plasmonic nano structures such as wire waveguides or antennas are key building blocks for novel highly integrated photonics. A quantitative understanding of the optical material properties of individual structures on the nanoscale is thus indispensable for predicting and designing the functionality of complex composite elements. In this letter we study propagating surface plasmon polaritons in single silver nanowires isolated from its environment by levitation in a linear Paul trap. Symmetry-breaking effects, for example, from supporting substrates are completely eliminated in this way. Illuminated with white light from a supercontinuum source, Fabry-Pérot-like resonances are observed in the scattering spectra obtained from the ends of the nanowires. The plasmonic nature of the signal is verified by local excitation and photon collection corresponding to a clean transmission measurement through a Fabry-Pérot resonator. A numerical simulation is used to compute the complex effective refractive indices of the nanowires as input parameter for a simple Fabry-Pérot model, which nicely reproduces the measured spectra despite the highly dispersive nature of the system. Our studies pave the way for quantitative characterization of nearly any trappable plasmonic nano object, even of fragile ones such as droplets of liquids or molten metal and of nearly any nanoresonator based on a finite waveguide with implications for modeling of complex hybrid structures featuring strong coupling or lasing. Moreover, the configuration has the potential to be complemented by gas sensors to study the impact of hot electrons on catalytic reactions nearby plasmonic particles.

AB - Plasmonic nano structures such as wire waveguides or antennas are key building blocks for novel highly integrated photonics. A quantitative understanding of the optical material properties of individual structures on the nanoscale is thus indispensable for predicting and designing the functionality of complex composite elements. In this letter we study propagating surface plasmon polaritons in single silver nanowires isolated from its environment by levitation in a linear Paul trap. Symmetry-breaking effects, for example, from supporting substrates are completely eliminated in this way. Illuminated with white light from a supercontinuum source, Fabry-Pérot-like resonances are observed in the scattering spectra obtained from the ends of the nanowires. The plasmonic nature of the signal is verified by local excitation and photon collection corresponding to a clean transmission measurement through a Fabry-Pérot resonator. A numerical simulation is used to compute the complex effective refractive indices of the nanowires as input parameter for a simple Fabry-Pérot model, which nicely reproduces the measured spectra despite the highly dispersive nature of the system. Our studies pave the way for quantitative characterization of nearly any trappable plasmonic nano object, even of fragile ones such as droplets of liquids or molten metal and of nearly any nanoresonator based on a finite waveguide with implications for modeling of complex hybrid structures featuring strong coupling or lasing. Moreover, the configuration has the potential to be complemented by gas sensors to study the impact of hot electrons on catalytic reactions nearby plasmonic particles.

KW - AFM

KW - deposition

KW - Fabry-Pérot resonances

KW - Paul trap

KW - silver nanowires

KW - surface plasmon polaritons

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85034016263&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1021/acsphotonics.7b00526

DO - 10.1021/acsphotonics.7b00526

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85034016263

VL - 4

SP - 2719

EP - 2725

JO - ACS PHOTONICS

JF - ACS PHOTONICS

SN - 2330-4022

IS - 11

ER -