Near-field electrospinning of dielectric-loaded surface plasmon polariton waveguides

Dielectric-loaded surface plasmon polariton waveguides (DLSPPWs) are typically made using nanolithography fabrication methods. In this paper we demonstrate that near-field electrospinning of polymer nanofibers directly onto a gold coated substrate can be used as an alternative method for rapid prototype fabrication of DLSPPWs. Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) have been excited directly inside the electrospun fibers using a prism in the Kretschmann-Raether configuration. A scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM) was used to characterize the propagation of the excited SPP inside the polymer fiber demonstrating the potential for using electrospun polymer fibers as SPP waveguides.