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Free-Space Excitation of Propagating Surface Plasmon Polaritons by Nonlinear Four-Wave Mixing

Jan Renger, Romain Quidant, Niek van Hulst, Stefano Palomba, and Lukas Novotny
Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 266802 – Published 21 December 2009
Physics logo See Synopsis: Never say never to a forbidden transition

Abstract

A unique feature of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) is that their in-plane momentum is larger than the momentum of free-propagating photons of the same energy. Therefore, it is believed that they can be excited only by evanescent fields created by total internal reflection or by local scattering. Here, we provide the first demonstration of free-space excitation of surface plasmons by means of nonlinear four-wave mixing. The process involves the vectorial addition of the momenta of three incident photons, making it possible to penetrate the light cone and directly couple to the SPP dispersion curve. Using this technique, surface plasmons can be launched on any metal surface by simply overlapping two beams of laser pulses incident from resonant directions. The excitation scheme is also applicable to other bound modes, such as waveguide modes, surface phonon polaritons, and excitations of 2D electron gases.

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  • Received 25 August 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.266802

©2009 American Physical Society

Synopsis

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Never say never to a forbidden transition

Published 19 January 2010

A three-photon process provides a new route toward exciting surface plasmon polaritons on a flat metal surface.

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Authors & Affiliations

Jan Renger1, Romain Quidant1, Niek van Hulst1, Stefano Palomba2, and Lukas Novotny1,2

  • 1ICFO-Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, Mediterranean Technology Park, 08860 Castelldefels (Barcelona), Spain
  • 2Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA

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Issue

Vol. 103, Iss. 26 — 31 December 2009

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