Dresden 2011 – scientific programme
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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik
O 41: Plasmonics and Nanooptics IV
O 41.2: Talk
Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 11:30–11:45, WIL A317
Far-field optical characterization of ultrafast plasmon propagation in nanostructures — •Christian Rewitz1, Thomas Keitzl1, Philip Tuchscherer1, Jer-Shing Huang2, Peter Geisler3, Bert Hecht3, and Tobias Brixner1 — 1Institut für Physikalische und Theoretische Chemie, Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg — 2Department of Chemistry, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan — 3Nano-Optics and Biophotonics Group, Department of Experimental Physics 5, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg
Our goal is to characterize and control the propagation of ultrafast excitations in optical nanocircuits. For this purpose, the technique of spectral interferometry (SI) is combined with a microscope setup. This allows for a full characterization (amplitude and phase) of an ultrafast pulse emitted at the output of a nanocircuit. The input and output of the nanostructure can be addressed with a diffraction-limited resolution. As a first experiment, we investigate the propagation of plasmons in silver wires with nanometer radial and micrometer longitudinal dimensions. Once the excitation pulse is focused on one end of a wire, part of the energy is converted into a propagating plasmon mode. Upon propagation the plasmon is modified by dispersion and attenuation that is specific to the nanostructure. After the plasmon is converted into a radiative far-field mode at the other end of the wire the field is collected by the microscope objective and can be fully characterized via SI. Thus, specific plasmonic properties of the nanostructure can be determined. One of them is the propagation speed of the plasmon.