Dresden 2011 – scientific programme
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HL: Fachverband Halbleiterphysik
HL 66: Joint Session: Plasmonics and Nanophotonics
HL 66.8: Talk
Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 19:00–19:15, GER 38
Launching Surface Plasmons by Carbon Nanotube Photoluminescence — •Nicolai Hartmann1, Johann Berthelot2, Alexandre Bouhelier2, and Achim Hartschuh1 — 1Department Chemie and CeNS, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany — 2Département Nanosciences, Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot Bourgogne, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France
We report on the excitation of propagating surface plasmons in metal films and waveguides via photoluminescence emission from semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes. Upon excitation in the visible regime a single carbon nanotube acts as a directive near-infrared point dipole source for surface plasmons propagating along the direction of the nanotube axis. To investigate this behaviour we used leakage radiation microscopy [1,2]. The excitation of propagating surface plasmons manifests itself by a narrow emission of leakage radiation in Fourier space appearing at angles according to the surface plasmon resonance. In real space we observe the exponential decay of the intensity along the propagation direction of the plasmon. Propagation lengths between 11 and 13 μm could be extracted and supported by calculations, depending on the thickness of the dielectric spacer layer separating carbon nanotubes and metal film. Combining surface plasmon coupling with electroluminescence from carbon nanotubes [3] opens up the possibility to create an electrically driven plasmon source.
[1] B. Hecht, et.al., Phys. rev. Lett. 77, 1889 (1996) [2] M. Böhmler, et.al., Opt. Express 18, 16443 (2010) [3] P. Avouris, et.al., Nat. Photonics 2, 341 (2008)