Bleach-imaged plasmon propagation (BlIPP) in single gold nanowires

Here, we present a novel approach to visualize propagating surface plasmon polaritons through plasmon-exciton interactions between single gold nanowires and a thin film of a fluorescent polymer. A plasmon polariton was launched by exciting one end of a single gold nanowire with a 532 nm laser. The local near-field of the propagating plasmon modes caused bleaching of the polymer emission. The degree of photobleaching along the nanowire could be correlated with the propagation distance of the surface plasmon polaritons. Using this method of bleach-imaged plasmon propagation (BlIPP), we determined a plasmon propagation distance of 1.8 +/- 0.4 mum at 532 nm for chemically grown gold nanowires. Our results are supported by finite difference time domain electromagnetic simulations.