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Updated: Jun 11, 2026
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Determination of the Excitation and Coupling Rates Between Light Emitters and Surface Plasmon Polaritons
Published on: July 21, 2018
Grating couplers for broadside input and output coupling of long-range surface plasmons
1School of Information Technology and Engineering, University of Ottawa, 161 Louis Pasteur, Ottawa K1N 6N5 Ontario, Canada. chengkun@site.uottawa.ca <chengkun@site.uottawa.ca>
Optics Express
|July 1, 2010
Summary
Metal gratings efficiently couple light into and out of long-range surface plasmon polaritons (LRSPPs) on gold slabs. Optimized designs achieve high in-coupling (15-20%) and out-coupling (60%) efficiencies.
Area of Science:
- Plasmonics
- Nanophotonics
- Optical Engineering
Background:
- Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) enable light manipulation at the nanoscale.
- Long-range SPPs (LRSPPs) offer enhanced propagation distances.
- Efficiently coupling light to and from LRSPPs is crucial for device applications.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose and model metal gratings for efficient in-coupling and out-coupling of LRSPPs.
- To investigate grating designs for membrane-supported gold (Au) slabs.
- To analyze the performance of grating couplers for Gaussian beam interaction.
Main Methods:
- Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method for numerical modeling.
- Design and simulation of gold (Au) bump gratings on a membrane.
- Analysis of in-coupling and out-coupling efficiencies.
Main Results:
- Achieved 15% to 20% in-coupling efficiencies for Gaussian beams into LRSPPs.
- Demonstrated approximately 60% out-coupling efficiencies for LRSPPs into free radiation.
- Investigated LRSPP back-reflections caused by out-coupling gratings.
Conclusions:
- Short grating designs with a few Au bumps are effective for LRSPP coupling.
- The proposed gratings offer a viable solution for interfacing free-space light with LRSPPs.
- Understanding back-reflections is important for optimizing device performance.
