Long-range surface plasmon polaritons propagating on a dielectric waveguide support

In the traditional long-range surface plasmon geometry, an ultrathin metal film is sandwiched between two layers having identical dielectric constants. Here we demonstrate the long-range surface plasmon polariton (LRSPP) properties for a new structure where a thin layer with a dielectric constant exceeding that of the surroundings is inserted within the sandwich, provided the layer thickness d satisfies the condition k(⊥)d=mπ where k(⊥) is the component of the guide wavevector perpendicular to the layer and m is an integer. The resulting plasmon modes have smaller losses and nearly the same phase velocity as the original LRSPP. This provides a strategy to support silver films having thicknesses of 10's of nanometers to create plasmonic devices for sensor applications.