Year: 2013
Type: preprint
Abstract: Plasmonics offers an enticing platform to manipulate light at the subwavelength scale. Currently, loss represents the most serious challenge impeding its progress and broad impact towards practical technology. In this regard, silver (Ag) is by far the preferred plasmonic material at optical frequencies, having the lowest loss among all metals in this frequency range. However, large discrepancies exist among widely quoted values of optical loss in Ag due to variations in sample preparation procedures that produce uncontrollable grain boundaries and defects associated with additional loss. A natural question arises: what are the intrinsic fundamental optical properties of Ag and its ultimate possibilities in the field of plasmonics? Using atomically-smooth epitaxial Ag films, we extracted new optical constants that reflect significantly reduced loss and measured greatly enhanced propagation distance of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) beyond what was previously considered possible. By establishing a new benchmark in the ultimate optical properties of Ag, these results will have a broad impact for metamaterials and plasmonic applications.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Wu, Yanwen, Zhang, Chengdong, Zhao, Yang, Kim, Jisun, Zhang, Matt, Liu, Xing-Xiang, Pribi, Greg K., Alù, Andrea, Shih, Chih-Kang, Li, Xiaoqin
Institution: The University of Texas at Austin
Language: English
Subfield: Biomedical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G1523888516, G2491070410, G249512967, CAREER: Quantum Dynamics in Nanostructures by Design, G3622582212, G3768046374, G4353487559, G5360682531, Tailoring Light-Matter Interaction in Plasmonic Nanostructures based on Epitaxial Metallic Films: From Classical to Quantum Regime, G6098521345, G7452299184, G7571028772, G8876996369
OpenAlex ID: W2953035684