Plasmon-Exciton Coupling and Dephasing in Hybrid Au Nanostructure/J-Aggregate Systems

The coupling between propagating surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in Au nanostructures and the exciton transitions of cyanine dye J-aggregates has been examined using leakage radiation microscopy. Real space images of the nanostructures give the propagation lengths of the leaky SPP modes, and Fourier space images yield their dispersion curves. The dispersion curves show an avoided crossing when the structures are coated with J-aggregates, with a Rabi splitting of approximately 30 meV. The lifetimes of the coupled states were calculated by combining the measured propagation lengths with the group velocities obtained from the dispersion curves. The SPP lifetimes decrease from ∼50 fs for the bare Au nanostructures, to ∼10 fs in the avoided crossing region for the coupled J-aggregate/Au nanostructure system. Analytical Holstein-Tavis-Cummings model calculations and finite element simulations of the coupled system show that the decrease in lifetime is primarily due to energy dissipation into dark states associated with the J-aggregates.