Dresden 2009 – scientific programme

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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik

O 38: Nano-optics of metallic and semiconducting nanostructures (experiments I)

O 38.9: Talk

Wednesday, March 25, 2009, 17:00–17:15, SCH A216

Nanostructure Symmetry Induced Surface Plasmon Propagation Guiding and Polarisation Twisting — •Brian Ashall and Dominic Zerulla — UCD Dublin, School of Physics, Dublin 4, Ireland

In a recent letter [1], we have demonstrated that symmetry properties of tailor designed nanostructures have a well defined impact on propagation characteristics of Surface Plasmon Polaritons (SPPs) excited on the nanostructured arrayed surfaces. Highlighted, were the SPP excitation, propagation and wave-guiding processes on the nanostructured arrays.
Building on these findings, more recent experiments have focused on the ability of 120^∘ symmetric nanostructures to predictably twist the polarisation of the reemitted light with respect to the illumination polarisation.
This effect has been both, directly observed through polariser - analyser experiments, and indirectly observed as a shift in the polarisation at which the most efficient SPP confinement on the nanostructured surface occurs. The degree by which the polarisation can be twisted is a function of the geometry of the nanostructures, and as such is an initial free design parameter. The only apparent restriction for the efficiency of the polarisation twisting effect for a given nanostructured array are the SPP excitation conditions.
[1] B. Ashall, M. Berndt, D. Zerulla, Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 203109 (2007).