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Determination of the Excitation and Coupling Rates Between Light Emitters and Surface Plasmon Polaritons
Published on: July 21, 2018
Optical bistability in nonlinear surface-plasmon polaritonic crystals.
G A Wurtz1, R Pollard, A V Zayats
1School of Mathematics and Physics, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, United Kingdom.
Physical Review Letters
|October 10, 2006
Summary
Nonlinear optical transmission in nanostructured metal films shows intensity-dependent bistability. This behavior, influenced by control light, offers tunable optical switching for advanced photonic devices.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Optics
- Nanotechnology
Background:
- Periodically nanostructured metal films, known as surface-plasmon polaritonic crystals, support unique optical properties.
- Coating these structures with nonlinear polymers introduces light-matter interactions crucial for optical switching.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the nonlinear optical transmission through polymer-coated surface-plasmon polaritonic crystals.
- To understand the dependence of optical transmission on control-light illumination conditions and its impact on resonant behavior.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of periodically nanostructured metal films.
- Coating the films with a nonlinear polymer.
- Experimental measurement of optical transmission under varying control-light intensities and wavelengths.
Main Results:
- Observed nonlinear optical transmission with intensity-dependent bistability in resonant transmission.
- Demonstrated that bistability varies with different resonant signal wavelengths and control light wavelengths.
- Correlated the observed bistability with the sensitivity of surface-plasmon modes to the dielectric environment and plasmonic field enhancement.
Conclusions:
- The nonlinear optical response of these nanostructures is highly tunable via control-light conditions.
- Surface-plasmon polaritonic crystals coated with nonlinear polymers exhibit promising characteristics for optical modulation and switching applications.
