We consider a generation of two-particle quantum states in the process of spontaneous parametric down-conversion of light by a dielectric nanoparticle with $χ^{(2)}$ response. As a particular example, we study the generation of surface plasmon-polariton pairs with a ${\rm GaAs}$ nanoparticle located at the silver-air interface. We show that for certain excitation geometries, ${\rm N00N}$-states of surface plasmon-polariton pairs could be obtained. The effect can be physically interpreted as a result of quantum interference between pairs of induced sources, each emitting either signal or idler plasmon. We then relate the resulting ${\rm N00N}$-pattern to the general symmetry properties of dyadic Green's function of a dipole emitter exciting surface waves. It renders the considered effect as a general way towards a robust generation of ${\rm N00N}$-states of surface waves using spontaneous parametric down-conversion in $χ^{(2)}$ nanoparticles.
We introduce the quantum mechanical formalism for treating surface plasmon polariton scattering at an interface. Our developed theory - which is fundamentally different from the analogous photonic scenario - is used to investigate the possibility of plasmonic beamsplitters at the quantum level. Remarkably, we find that a wide-range of splitting ratios can be reached. As an application, we characterize a 50:50 plasmonic beamsplitter and investigate first-order quantum interference of surface plasmon polaritons. The results of this theoretical study show that surface plasmon beamsplitters are ab…
In this review we look at the concepts and state-of-the-art concerning the strong coupling of surface plasmon-polariton modes to states associated with quantum emitters such as excitons in J-aggregates, dye molecules and quantum dots. We explore the phenomenon of strong coupling with reference to a number of examples involving electromagnetic fields and matter. We then provide a concise description of the relevant background physics of surface plasmon polaritons. An extensive overview of the historical background and a detailed discussion of more recent relevant experimental advances concernin…
Single surface plasmon polaritons are excited using photons generated via spontaneous parametric down-conversion. The mean excitation rates, intensity correlations and Fock state populations are studied. The observed dependence of the second order coherence in our experiment is consistent with a linear uncorrelated Markovian environment in the quantum regime. Our results provide important information about the effect of loss for assessing the potential of plasmonic waveguides for future nanophotonic circuitry in the quantum regime.
Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are locally excited at silver surfaces using (~100) nm-sized nanodiamonds (NDs) with multiple nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers (~400). The fluorescence from an externally illuminated (at 532 nm) ND and from nearby NDs, which are not illuminated but produce out-of-plane scattering of SPPs excited by the illuminated ND, exhibit distinctly different wavelength spectra, showing short-wavelength filtering due to the SPP propagation loss. The results indicate that NDs with multiple NV centers can be used as efficient sub-wavelength SPP sources in planar integrated plas…
In a proposed book chapter surface plasmon polariton assisted optical switching in noble metal nanoparticle systems is discussed in the sub-band gap formalism.
We present an experimental methodology to observe spatio-temporal second-order quantum coherence of surface plasmon polaritons which are emitted by nitrogen vacancy color centers attached at the apex of an optical tip. The approach relies on leakage radiation microscopy in the Fourier space and we use this approach to test wave-particle duality for surface plasmon polaritons.
Optical field interacting with a topologically protected one-dimensional helical state is shown to support a one-dimensional plasmon-polariton that is characterized by a non-linear dispersion. In a two-dimensional Dirac magnet these electro-optical excitations are confined to domain walls, thus, offering a possibility to manipulate quantum optical states by altering magnetic domain configurations. An exact spectral equation for such a topological plasmon-polariton is derived.
With the unique possibilities for controlling light in nanoscale devices, graphene plasmonics has opened new perspectives to the nanophotonics community with potential applications in metamaterials, modulators, photodetectors, and sensors. This paper briefly reviews the recent exciting progress in graphene plasmonics. We begin with a general description for optical properties of graphene, particularly focusing on the dispersion of graphene-plasmon polaritons. The dispersion relation of graphene-plasmon polaritons of spatially extended graphene is expressed in terms of the local response limit …
Phonon polaritons in natural anisotropic crystals hold great promise for infrared nano-optics. However, the direct electrical control of these polaritons is difficult, preventing the development of active polaritonic devices. Here we propose the heterostructures of graphene on a biaxial crystal (α-phase molybdenum trioxide) slab and theoretically study the hybridized plasmon-phonon polaritons with dependence on the Fermi level of graphene from three aspects: dispersion relationships, iso-frequency contours, and the quantum spin Hall effects. We demonstrate the distinct wavelength tunability of…
We consider a simple cubic array of metallic nanoparticles supporting extended collective plasmons that arise from the near-field dipolar interaction between localized surface plasmons in each nanoparticle. We develop a fully analytical quantum theory of the strong-coupling regime between these collective plasmons and photons resulting in plasmon polaritons in the nanoparticle array. Remarkably, we show that the polaritonic band gap and the dielectric function of the metamaterial can be significantly modulated by the polarization of light. We unveil how such an anisotropic behavior in the plas…
Plasmonic structures are known to support the modes with subwavelength volumes in which the field matter interactions are greatly enhanced. Coupling between the molecular excitations and plasmons leading to formation of plexcitons has been investigated for a number of organic molecules. However, plasmon-exciton coupling in metal semiconductor structures have not experienced the same degree of attention. In this work we show that the very strong coupling regime in which the Rabi energy exceeds the exciton binding energy is attainable in semiconductor cladded plasmonic nanoparticles and leads to…
We theoretically investigate plasmon polaritons in cubic lattices of spherical metallic nanoparticles. The nanoparticles, each supporting triply-degenerate localized surface plasmons, couple through the Coulomb dipole-dipole interaction, giving rise to collective plasmons that extend over the whole metamaterial. The latter hybridize with photons forming plasmon polaritons, which are the hybrid light-matter eigenmodes of the system. We derive general analytical expressions to evaluate both plasmon and plasmon-polariton dispersions, and the corresponding eigenstates. These are obtained within a …
We investigate the effect of disorder on the propagation of surface plasmon polaritons in arrays of evanescently coupled dielectric loaded surface plasmon polariton waveguides. Diagonal disorder is implemented by randomly varying the heights of the waveguides. Real-space as well as Fourier-space images of the surface plasmon polariton intensity distribution in the waveguide arrays are recorded by leakage radiation microscopy. With these techniques we experimentally demonstrate the transverse localization of surface plasmon polaritons with increasing disorder.
A non-perturbative theory of the spontaneous down conversion (SDC) of surface plasmon polaritons at a metal-dielectric interface is presented. It is shown that the process is resonantly enhanced for the characteristic power of excitation, typically of the order of tens of watts. At a stronger excitation the yield of SDC decreases rapidly. At a stronger excitation the yield of SDC decreases rapidly. The reason for this decrease is the high rate of the change of surface plasmon polaritons by the laser field, exceeding the rate of the zero-point fluctuations responsible for the SDC process. The o…
A graphene sheet gated with a ridged ground plane, creating a soft-boundary (SB) graphene nanoribbon, is considered. By adjusting the ridge parameters and bias voltage a channel can be created on the graphene which can guide TM surface plasmon polaritons (SPP). Two types of modes are found; fundemental and higher-order modes with no apparent cutoff frequency and with energy distributed over the created channel, and edge modes with energy concen-trated at the soft-boundary edge. Dispersion curves, electric near-field patterns, and current distributions of these modes are determined. Since the l…
We study the coherent properties of plasmon polaritons optically excited on periodic nanostructures. The gold grains are coupled to a single mode photonic waveguide which exhibits a dramatically reduced transmission originating from the derived quantum interference. With a nonequilibrium description of Floquet-dressed polaritons we demonstrate the switching of light transmission through the waveguide due to sheer existence of intraband transitions in gold from right above the Fermi level driven by the external laser light.
Emission of photon pairs by an interface of asymmetric dielectric and thin metal film excited by a normally falling plane wave is considered. The excitation causes oscillations in time of the phase velocity of surface plasmon polaritons in the interface. This leads to the dynamical Casimir effect - the generation of pairs of surface plasmon polariton quanta, which transfer to photons outside the interface. In case of a properly chosen interface, the yield of two-photon emission may exceed that of usual spontaneous parametric down conversion.
Polaritons are compositional light-matter quasiparticles that have recently enabled remarkable breakthroughs in quantum and nonlinear optics, as well as in material science. Despite the enormous progress, however, a direct nanometer-scale visualization of polaritons has remained an open challenge. Here, we demonstrate that plasmon-exciton polaritons, or plexcitons, generated by a hybrid system composed of an individual silver nanoparticle and a few-layer transition metal dichalcogenide can be spectroscopically mapped with nanometer spatial resolution using electron energy loss spectroscopy in …
The goal of nanophotonics is to control and manipulate light at length scales below the diffraction limit. Typically nanostructured metals are used for this purpose, light being confined by exploiting the surface plasmon-polaritons such structures support. Recently excitonic (molecular) materials have been identified as an alternative candidate material for nanophotonics. Here we use theoretical modelling to explore how hybridisation of surface exciton-polaritons can be achieved through appropriate nanostructuring. We focus on the extent to which the frequency of the hybridised modes can be sh…
We propose a concept of surface plasmon-polariton amplification in the structure comprising interface between dielectric, metal and asymmetric quantum well. Due to the Rashba spin-orbit interaction, mimina of dispersion relation for electrons in conduction band are shifted with respect to the maximum of dispersion dependence for holes in $Γ$-point. When energy and momentum intervals between extrema in dispersion relations of electrons and holes match dispersion relation of plasmons, indirect radiative transition can amplify the plasmons; excitation of leaky modes is forbidden due to the select…
We introduce the concept of polychromatic plasmonics and suggest an broadband plasmonic lens for nanofocusing of surface plasmon polaritons. The lens employs a parabolically modulated metal-dielectric-metal structure. This plasmonic lens has a bandwidth of more than an optical octave thus opening new opportunities for broadband plasmonic applications.
We consider the linear and nonlinear models of generation of the surface plasmon-polaritons on the boundary of nonmagnetic dielectric medium and nonmagnetic metal. We have shown how the three-dimensional incident wave is transformed to the fluxes of surface plasmon-polaritons at the first and second harmonics of the TM-mode. These "slow" and "fast" fluxes of the surface plasmon-polaritons are formed at the both harmonics at the weak interaction. We obtain that the pulses of surface plasmon-polaritons propagate as the bright and dark solitons at the strong interaction of the first and second ha…
The propagation of a surface plasmon-polariton along a stack of doped graphene sheets is considered. This auxiliary problem is used to discuss: (i) the scattering of such a mode at an interface between the stack and the vacuum; (ii) the scattering at an interface where there is a sudden change of the electronic doping. The formalism is then extended to the {\it barrier problem}. In this system rich physics is found for the plasmonic mode, showing: total reflection, total transmission, Fabry-Pérot oscillations, and coupling to photonic modes.
We study theoretically and experimentally coherent imaging of surface plasmon polaritons using either leakage radiation microscopy through a thin metal film or interference microscopy through a thick metal film. Using a rigorous modal formalism based on scalar Whittaker potentials we develop a systematic analytical and vectorial method adapted to the analysis of coherent imaging involving surface plasmon polaritons. The study includes geometrical aberrations due index mismatch which played an important role in the interpretation of recent experiments using leakage radiation microscopy. We comp…
We develop a quantum theory of plasmon polaritons in chains of metallic nanoparticles, describing both near- and far-field interparticle distances, by including plasmon-photon Umklapp processes. Taking into account the retardation effects of the long-range dipole-dipole interaction between the nanoparticles, which are induced by the coupling of the plasmonic degrees of freedom to the photonic continuum, we reveal the polaritonic nature of the normal modes of the system. We compute the dispersion relation and radiative linewidth, as well as the group velocities of the eigenmodes, and compare ou…
In the present work we theoretically investigated the excitation of surface plasmon-polaritons (SPPs) in deformed graphene by attenuated total reflection method. We considered the Otto geometry for SPPs excitation in graphene. Efficiency of SPPs excitation strongly depends on the SPPs propagation direction. The frequency and the incident angle of the most effective excitation of SPPs strongly depend on the polarization of the incident light. Our results may open up the new possibilities for strain-induced molding flow of light at nanoscales.
We present a quantum mechanical approach to calculate broadening of plasmonic resonances in metallic nanostructures due to collisions of electrons with the surface of the structure. The approach is applicable if the characteristic size of the structure is much larger than the de Broglie electron wavelength in the metal. The approach can be used in studies of plasmonic properties of both single nanoparticles and arrays of nanoparticles.
We show how a complex Snell's law can be used to describe the refraction of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) at an interface between two metals, validating its predictions with 3-D electrodynamics simulations. Refraction gives rise to peculiar SPP features including inhomogeneities in the waveform and dispersion relations that depend on the incident wave and associated material. These features make it possible to generate SPPs propagating away from the interface with significant confinement normal to the propagation direction. We also show that it is possible to encode optical properties of t…
We propose a mechanism of angular momentum conversion from optical transverse spin in surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) to conduction electron spin. Free electrons in the metal follow the transversally spinning electric field of SPP, and the resulting orbital motions create inhomogeneous static magnetisation in the metal. By solving the spin diffusion equation in the SPP, we find that the magnetisation field generates an electron spin current. We show that there exists a resonant condition where the spin current is resonantly enhanced, and the polarisation of the spin current is flipped. Our t…
Crystals of plasmonic metal nanoparticles have intriguing optical properties. They reach the regimes of ultrastrong and deep strong light-matter coupling, where the photonic states need to be included in the simulation of material properties. We propose a quantum description of the plasmon polaritons in supercrystals that starts from the dipole and quadrupole excitations of the nanoparticle building blocks and their coupling to photons. Our model excellently reproduces results of finite difference time domain simulations. It provides detailed insight into the emergence of the polariton states.…
The paper considers the dynamics of nonlinear surface plasmon polariton waves in a planar plasmon waveguide, which is a heterostructure of non-magnetic metallic and dielectric layers. The obtained in the work nonlinear equations and their analytical solutions describe the vector cnoidal and solitary plasmon polariton waves excited by single electromagnetic pulse at the waveguide. Nonlinear plasmon polariton waves arise under the influence of the Kerr nonlinearity of metal and the saturation of nonlinearity at the heterostructure. The period and profile of envelope of the excited nonlinear surf…
A fundamental building block for nanophotonics is the ability to achieve negative refraction of polaritons, because this could enable the demonstration of many unique nanoscale applications such as deep-subwavelength imaging, superlens, and novel guiding. However, to achieve negative refraction of highly squeezed polaritons, such as plasmon polaritons in graphene and phonon polaritons in boron nitride (BN) with their wavelengths squeezed by a factor over 100, requires the ability to flip the sign of their group velocity at will, which is challenging. Here we reveal that the strong coupling bet…
We consider the plasmon polaritons along a layer of hyperbolic metamaterial propagating in the plane of the anisotropy axis with an arbitrary its orientation. As a layer material, we use periodic plane-layered artificial medium or hyperbolic metamaterial of thin metal and dielectric layers and produce its homogenization. The conditions for the existence of fast, slow, leakage, gliding flowing, forward and backward plasmon-polaritons are found. The Fresnel formulas for the diffraction of a plane wave of arbitrary polarization on such a structure are obtained. The dispersion of plasmon-polariton…
The possibility to use surface plasmon polaritons for enhancement of weak magnetic dipole transitions is analyzed theoretically and demonstrated experimentally for simple flat geometry and sine-wave profile modulated plasmonic films. Spontaneous emission of Eu3+ in organic matrices deposited onto plasmonic surfaces demonstrates specific angular and polarization patterns at both electric and magnetic dipole transitions with a well-defined maximum at the plasmon decoupling conditions manifesting the character and magnitude of the effect.
In the presence of an external magnetic field, the surface plasmon polariton that exists at the metal-dielectric interface is believed to support a unidirectional frequency range near the surface plasmon frequency, where the surface plasmon polariton propagates along one but not the opposite direction. Recent works have pointed to some of the paradoxical consequences of such a unidirectional range, including in particular the violation of the time-bandwidth product constraint that should otherwise apply in general in static systems. Here we show that such a unidirectional frequency range is no…
Surface plasmon polaritons scattering from 2D subwavelength silicon wires is investigated using finite difference time domain method. It is shown that coupling an incident surface plasmon polariton to inter-cavity modes of the particle can dramatically changes transmitted fields and plasmon induced forces. In particular, both transmission and optical forces are highly sensitive to the particle size that is related to the excitation of whispering gallery modes or standing-wave modes depending on the particle shape and size. This features might have potential sensing applications.
Polaritons can provide strong optical field enhancement allowing to boost light-matter interaction. Here, we experimentally observe enhancement of mid-infrared second-harmonic generation (SHG) using grating-coupled surface phonon polaritons of the 6H-SiC surface. In our experiment, we measure the SHG along the polariton dispersion by changing the incidence angle of the excitation beam. We observe hybridization between the propagating surface phonon polaritons and localized plasmon resonances in the gold grating, evidenced by the modification of the polariton dispersion as we change the area ra…
We experimentally measure and analytically describe the fluorescence enhancement obtained by depositing CdSe/CdS nanocrystals onto a gold plasmonic crystal, a two-dimensional grating of macroscopic size obtained by gold deposition on a self-assembled opal. We show evidences of nanocrystals near-field coupling to the gold Surface Plasmons Polaritons (SPP) followed by grating-induced SPP re-emission to far-field. We develop a theoretical framework and an original method in order to evaluate, from photoluminescence experiments, the SPP extraction efficiency of a grating.
We report the design and experimental realization of a kind of miniaturized devices for efficient unidirectional launching and shaping of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). Each device consists of an array of evenly spaced gap plasmon resonators with varying dimensions. Particle swarm optimization is used to achieve a theoretical two dimensional launching efficiency of about 51%, under the normal illumination of a 5-μm waist Gaussian beam at 780 nm. By modifying the wavefront of the SPPs, unidirectional SPPs with focused, Bessel and Airy profiles are launched and imaged with leakage radiation …
Surface plasmon polariton (SPP) is an electromagnetic wave which is tightly localised beyond the diffraction limit at metallic surfaces. Recently, it is theoretically proposed that the angular momentum conversion between the SPP and electrons. In this work, we have successfully measured SPP induced spin currents, which proves the fact that the angular momenta are interconverted. Such conversion from light to a spin current can be used as a coupler in a next generation spintronic computing with optical data transfer or storage.
We investigate single interface surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) excited by electromagnetic waves under general electromagnetic boundary conditions that allow for non-zero surface charge and surface current densities. Incorporating these, we derive general conditions for single interface SPPs and solve both the surface source distributions and the surface electromagnetic waves for such SPPs when excited by electromagnetic waves.
Optical properties of colloidal plasmonic titanium nitride nanoparticles are examined with an eye on their photothermal via transmission electron microscopy and optical transmittance measurements. Single crystal titanium nitride cubic nanoparticles with an average size of 50 nm exhibit plasmon resonance in the biological transparency window. With dimensions optimized for efficient cellular uptake, the nanoparticles demonstrate a high photothermal conversion efficiency. A self-passivating native oxide at the surface of the nanoparticles provides an additional degree of freedom for surface funct…
Graphene plasmons promise exciting nanophotonic and optoelectronic applications. Owing to their extremely short wavelengths, however, the efficient coupling of photons to graphene plasmons - critical for the development of future devices - can be challenging. Here, we propose and numerically demonstrate coupling between infrared photons and graphene plasmons by the compression of surface polaritons on tapered bulk slabs of both polar and doped- semiconductor materials. Propagation of the surface phonon polaritons (in SiC) and surface plasmon polaritons (in n-GaAs) along the tapered slabs compr…
The realization of efficient and miniature source of entangled photon pairs stills remains a challenge. In this work, we experimentally studied the possibility to enhance the process of spontaneous parametric down-conversion by surface plasmon polaritons. The details of the experimental setup will be discussed along with theoretical calculations of the enhancement factor.
Transformational optics allow for a markedly enhanced control of the electromagnetic wave trajectories within metamaterials with interesting applications ranging from perfect lenses to invisibility cloaks, carpets, concentrators and rotators. Here, we present a review of curved anisotropic heterogeneous meta-surfaces designed using the tool of transformational plasmonics, in order to achieve a similar control for surface plasmon polaritons in cylindrical and conical carpets, as well as cylindrical cloaks, concentrators and rotators of a non-convex cross-section. Finally, we provide an asymptot…
We present numerical simulations for the propagation of surface plasmon polaritons in a dielectric-metal-dielectric waveguide using COMSOL multiphysics software. We show that the use of an active dielectric with gain that compensates metal absorption losses enhances substantially plasmon propagation. Furthermore, the introduction of the active material induces, for a specific gain value, a root in the imaginary part of the propagation constant leading to infinite propagation of the surface plasmon. The computational approaches analyzed in this work can be used to define and tune the optimal co…
In this work, we revisit the topic of surface waves on nonreciprocal plasmonic structures, and clarify whether strictly unidirectional surface plasmon-polaritons are allowed to exist in this material platform. By investigating different three-dimensional configurations and frequency regimes, we theoretically show that, while conventional surface magneto-plasmons are not strictly unidirectional due to nonlocal effects, consistent with recent predictions made in the literature, another important class of one-way surface plasmon-polaritons, existing at an interface with an opaque isotropic materi…
Broadband and tunable control of surface plasmon polaritons in the near-infrared and visible spectrum is demonstrated theoretically and numerically with a pair of phased nanoslits. We establish with simulations supported by a coupled wave model that by dividing the incident power equally between two input channels, the maximum plasmon intensity deliverable to either side of the nanoslit pair is twice that for an isolated slit. For a broadband source, a compact device with nanoslit separation of the order of a tenth of the wavelength is shown to steer nearly all the generated plasmons to one si…
Multiple surface plasmon-polariton (SPP) waves excited at the interface of a homogeneous isotropic metal and a chiral sculptured thin film (STF) impregnated with silver nanoparticles were theoretically assessed for the multiple-SPP-waves-based sensing of a fluid uniformly infiltrating the chiral STF. The Bruggemann homogenization formalism was used in two different modalities to determine the three principal relative permittivity scalars of the silver-nanoparticle-impregnated chiral STF infiltrated uniformly by the fluid. The dynamic sensitivity increased when silver nanoparticles were present…
The work is devoted to the investigation of the surface plasmon polaritons in the metal - dielectric heterostructures containing materials with magnetoelectric properties. The analysis of various possible configurations shows that the magnetoelectric effect influences the plasmonic surface wave polarization, localization and dispersion. The essential case of chromium (III) oxide as a magnetoelectric dielectric is described in detail, revealing the switching between different regimes of magnetoelectric impact on plasmon-polaritons. Plasmonic heterostructures with magnetoelectric constituents ca…
Surface enhanced Raman scattering mediated by surface plasmons polaritons with wave vector much larger than those of light is considered. The excitation of these polaritons and their efficient Raman scattering due to low group velocity and electric field localization at the surface is discussed for the case of two nearby surfaces. The Raman scattering depends not only on the intensity of the electric fields seen by the molecules but also on the surface plasmon density of states.
Solid state cavity quantum electrodynamics is a rapidly advancing field which explores the frontiers of light-matter coupling. Plasmonic approaches are of particular interest in this field, since they carry the potential to squeeze optical modes to spaces significantly below the diffraction limit1,2, enhancing light-matter coupling. They further serve as an architecture to design ultra-fast, non-linear integrated circuits with smallest footprints3. Transition metal dichalcogenides are ideally suited as the active material in such circuits as they interact strongly with light at the ultimate mo…
We characterize surface-plasmon polaritons at lossy planar interfaces between one dispersive and one nondispersive linear isotropic homogeneous media, i.e., materials or metamaterials. Specifically we solve Maxwell's equations to obtain strict bounds for the permittivity and permeability of these media such that satisfying these bounds implies surface-plasmon polaritons successfully propagate at the interface, and violation of the bounds impedes propagation, i.e., the field delocalizes from the surface into the bulk. Our characterization of surface-plasmon polaritons is valuable for checking v…
Recently the new concepts of transverse spin angular momentum and Belinfante spin momentum of evanescent waves have drawn considerable attention. Here, we investigate these novel physical properties of electromagnetic fields in the context of locally excited surface plasmon polaritons. We demonstrate, both analytically and numerically, that locally excited surface plasmon polaritons possess transverse spin angular momentum and Belinfante momentum with rich and non-trivial characteristics. We also show that the transverse spin angular momentum of locally excited surface plasmon polaritons leads…
