Correlation between incident and emission polarization in nanowire surface plasmon waveguides

Nanowire plasmons can be launched by illumination at one terminus of the nanowire and emission can be detected at the other end of the wire. Using polarization dependent dark-field scattering spectroscopy, we measure how the polarization of the emitted light depends on the polarization of the incident light. We observe that the shape of the nanowire termination plays an important role in determining this polarization change. Depending on termination shape, a nanowire can serve as either a polarization-maintaining waveguide, or as a polarization-rotating, nanoscale half-wave plate. The understanding of how plasmonic waveguiding influence the polarization of the guided light is important for optimizing the structure of integrated plasmonic devices.