Surface plasmon bandwidth increase using chirped-pitch linear diffraction gratings

Large-scale linear diffraction gratings with gradually varying pitch were photo-inscribed onto the surface of azobenzene thin films using a 532 nm laser and a modified Lloyd mirror set-up. By placing a cylindrical lens in front of the direct half of the inscribing beam, gratings with a chirping rate as high as 12.9 nm/mm were produced. Subsequently, when these chirped-pitch gratings were coated with silver, over three-fold bandwidth increase was observed in the surface plasmon transmission peaks at FWHM, when compared to constant-pitch gratings. This was made possible due to the simultaneous excitation of surface plasmon resonance in a band of light wavelengths.