Fundamentals of Plasmonics.- Electromagnetics of Metals.- Surface Plasmon Polaritons at Metal / Insulator Interfaces.- Excitation of Surface Plasmon Polaritons at Planar Interfaces.- Imaging Surface Plasmon Polariton Propagation.- Localized Surface Plasmons.- Electromagnetic Surface Modes at Low Frequencies.- Applications.- Plasmon Waveguides.- Transmission of Radiation Through Apertures and Films.- Enhancement of Emissive Processes and Nonlinearities.- Spectroscopy and Sensing.- Metamaterials and Imaging with Surface Plasmon Polaritons.- Concluding Remarks.

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Plasmonics: Fundamentals and Applications

Since the first application of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) phenomenon for sensing almost two decades ago, this method has made great strides both in terms of instrumentation development and applications. SPR sensor technology has been commercialized and SPR biosensors have become a central tool for characterizing and quantifying biomolecular interactions. This paper attempts to review the major developments in SPR technology. Main application areas are outlined and examples of applications of SPR sensor technology are presented. Future prospects of SPR sensor technology are discussed.

Surface plasmon resonance sensors: review

We present models for the optical functions of 11 metals used as mirrors and contacts in optoelectronic and optical devices: noble metals (Ag, Au, Cu), aluminum, beryllium, and transition metals (Cr, Ni, Pd, Pt, Ti, W). We used two simple phenomenological models, the Lorentz-Drude (LD) and the Brendel-Bormann (BB), to interpret both the free-electron and the interband parts of the dielectric response of metals in a wide spectral range from 0.1 to 6 eV. Our results show that the BB model was needed to describe appropriately the interband absorption in noble metals, while for Al, Be, and the transition metals both models exhibit good agreement with the experimental data. A comparison with measurements on surface normal structures confirmed that the reflectance and the phase change on reflection from semiconductor-metal interfaces (including the case of metallic multilayers) can be accurately described by use of the proposed models for the optical functions of metallic films and the matrix method for multilayer calculations.

Optical properties of metallic films for vertical-cavity optoelectronic devices.

We experimentally demonstrate a perfect plasmonic absorber at λ = 1.6 μm. Its polarization-independent absorbance is 99% at normal incidence and remains very high over a wide angular range of incidence around ±80°. We introduce a novel concept to utilize this perfect absorber as plasmonic sensor for refractive index sensing. This sensing strategy offers great potential to maintain the performance of localized surface plasmon sensors even in nonlaboratory environments due to its simple and robust measurement scheme.

Infrared Perfect Absorber and Its Application As Plasmonic Sensor

In atomic physics, the coherent coupling of a broad and a narrow resonance leads to quantum interference and provides the general recipe for electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). A sharp resonance of nearly perfect transmission can arise within a broad absorption profile. These features show remarkable potential for slow light, novel sensors and low-loss metamaterials. In nanophotonics, plasmonic structures enable large field strengths within small mode volumes. Therefore, combining EIT with nanoplasmonics would pave the way towards ultracompact sensors with extremely high sensitivity. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a nanoplasmonic analogue of EIT using a stacked optical metamaterial. A dipole antenna with a large radiatively broadened linewidth is coupled to an underlying quadrupole antenna, of which the narrow linewidth is solely limited by the fundamental non-radiative Drude damping. In accordance with EIT theory, we achieve a very narrow transparency window with high modulation depth owing to nearly complete suppression of radiative losses. Plasmonic nanostructures enable the concentration of large electric fields into small spaces. The classical analogue of electromagnetically induced transparency has now been achieved in such devices, leading to a narrow resonance in their absorption spectrum. This combination of high electric-field concentration and sharp resonance offers a pathway to ultracompact sensors with extremely high sensitivity.

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Plasmonic analogue of electromagnetically induced transparency at the Drude damping limit.

Infrared optical constants collected from the literature are tabulated. The data for the noble metals and Al, Pb, and W can be reasonably fit using the Drude model. It is shown that -epsilon1(omega) = epsilon2(omega) approximately omega(2)(p)/(2omega(2)(tau)) at the damping frequency omega = omega(tau). Also -epsilon1(omega(tau)) approximately - (1/2) epsilon1(0), where the plasma frequency is omega(p).

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R. R. Bell

Papers

Optical properties of the metals Al, Co, Cu, Au, Fe, Pb, Ni, Pd, Pt, Ag, Ti, and W in the infrared and far infrared