Electrically-Excited Surface Plasmon Polaritons with Directionality Control

Dong, Zhaogang; Chu, Hong‒Son; Zhu, Dongmei; Du, Wei; Akimov, Yuriy; Goh, Wei Peng; Wang, Tao; Goh, Kuan Eng Johnson; Troadec, Cedric; Nijhuis, Christian A.; Yang, Joel K. W.

doi:10.1021/ph5004303

Cited by 37 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…This technique combines the advantages of a local SPP source (like SNOM and CL) and widefield optical imaging. Such an experimental approach has recently been used to study SPP scattering at the end of a gold nanowire [32], at the edges of a gold nanostripe [33], at holes etched in a gold film [34,35], and at the slits of linear [36] and circular gratings [37]; yet this approach has never been used to study the interaction of 2D SPPs with a single 0D NP. In this experiment, we use the inelastic tunneling of electrons from the STM tip as a nanosource of circular SPP waves on a thin gold film [32,38].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scattering of electrically excited surface plasmon polaritons by gold nanoparticles studied by optical interferometry with a scanning tunneling microscope

et al. 2015

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We study the scattering of electrically excited surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) from individual nanostructures. The tunneling electrons from a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) are used to excite an outgoing , circular SPP wave on a thin (50-nm) gold film on which isolated gold nanoparticles (NPs) have been deposited. Interaction of the excited SPPs with the NPs leads to both in-plane (SPP-to-SPP) and out-of-plane (SPP-to-photon) scattering. We use SPP leakage radiation microscopy to monitor the interference between the incident and in-plane scattered SPP waves in the image plane. By changing the location of the STM tip, the distance of the pointlike SPP source to the scatterers can be varied at will, which constitutes a key advantage over other existing techniques. As well, the out-of-plane scattered radiation interferes with the direct light emission from the STM tip in the back focal plane (Fourier plane). This confirms the mutual coherence of the light and SPP emission resulting from the inelastic tunneling of an electron in the STM junction. We use this effect to demonstrate that SPP-to-photon scattering at NPs is highly directional.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scattering of electrically excited surface plasmon polaritons by gold nanoparticles studied by optical interferometry with a scanning tunneling microscope

et al. 2015

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“…The broadband fluctuations in the tunnelling current can excite surface plasmons - the collective oscillations of free electron gas - in metallic nanostructures, providing a method for plasmon excitation with several distinct advantages, including high compactness, fast response, and free of background noise1–5. The electron-to-plasmon conversion efficiency is only about one plasmon per 10 5 electrons in metal-dielectric-metal junctions1,5 and scanning-tunnelling-microscope experiments2–4. However, this can be improved by one or two orders of magnitude by nanostructure design (using single optical antennas or their microscale arrays)6–8.…”

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confidence: 99%

Reactive tunnel junctions in electrically driven plasmonic nanorod metamaterials

et al. 2017

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Hot, nonequilibrium carriers formed near the interfaces of semiconductors or metals play a crucial role in chemical catalysis and optoelectronic processes. In addition to optical illumination, an efficient way to generate hot carriers is by excitation with tunnelling electrons. Here we show that the generation of hot electrons makes the nanoscale tunnel junctions highly reactive and facilitates strongly confined chemical reactions which can in turn modulate the tunnelling processes. We designed a device containing an array of electrically-driven plasmonic nanorods with up to 1011 tunnelling junctions per square centimeter, which demonstrates hot-electron activation of oxidation and reduction reactions in the junctions, induced by the presence of O2 and H2 molecules, respectively. The kinetics of the reactions can be monitored in-situ following the radiative decay of tunnelling-induced surface plasmons. This electrically-driven plasmonic nanorod metamaterial platform can be useful for the development of nanoscale chemical and optoelectronic devices based on electron tunnelling.

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“…Over the last decade, the combination of ambient STM with optical microscopy has been increasingly applied to experiments in nano-optics [28][29][30][31][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45]. Most recently, this technique has been used to study the propagation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in 2D plasmonic crystals [43] and the spectral response of plasmonic lenses [44]; however, the measurement of the dispersion relation of the optical modes in a plasmonic system using this technique has never been reported before.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An electrically induced probe of the modes of a plasmonic multilayer stack

Cao¹,

Achlan²,

Bryche³

et al. 2019

Opt. Express

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A new single-image acquisition technique for the determination of the dispersion relation of the propagating modes of a plasmonic multilayer stack is introduced. This technique is based on an electrically-driven, spectrally broad excitation source which is nanoscale in size: the inelastic electron tunnel current between the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) and the sample. The resulting light from the excited modes of the system is collected in transmission using a microscope objective. The energy-momentum dispersion relation of the excited optical modes is then determined from the angle-resolved optical spectrum of the collected light. Experimental and theoretical results are obtained for metal-insulator-metal (MIM) stacks consisting of a silicon oxide layer (70, 190 or 310 nm thick) between two gold films (each with a thickness of 30 nm). The broadband characterization of hybrid plasmonic-photonic transverse magnetic (TM) modes involved in an avoided crossing is demonstrated and the advantages of this new technique over optical reflectivity measurements are evaluated.

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Electrically-Excited Surface Plasmon Polaritons with Directionality Control

Cited by 37 publications

References 41 publications

Scattering of electrically excited surface plasmon polaritons by gold nanoparticles studied by optical interferometry with a scanning tunneling microscope

Scattering of electrically excited surface plasmon polaritons by gold nanoparticles studied by optical interferometry with a scanning tunneling microscope

Reactive tunnel junctions in electrically driven plasmonic nanorod metamaterials

An electrically induced probe of the modes of a plasmonic multilayer stack

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