The plasmon Talbot effect

TL;DR

This paper describes the theoretical analysis of a plasmonic analog of the Talbot effect, demonstrating self-imaging and hot spot formation on periodically structured metal surfaces with potential applications in plasmonic circuits.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of a plasmon Talbot effect, providing a theoretical framework and proposing a realizable implementation using drilled metal films.

Findings

Self-images can form at distances up to several hundreds of wavelengths.

Image focal spots are approximately half a wavelength in size.

Spot positions can be controlled by changing the illumination angle.

Abstract

The plasmon analog of the self-imaging Talbot effect is described and theoretically analyzed. Rich plasmon carpets containing hot spots are shown to be produced by a row of periodically-spaced surface features. A row of holes drilled in a metal film and illuminated from the back side is discussed as a realizable implementation of this concept. Self-images of the row are produced, separated from the original one by distances up to several hundreds of wavelengths in the examples under consideration. The size of the image focal spots is close to half a wavelength and the spot positions can be controlled by changing the incidence direction of external illumination, suggesting the possibility of using this effect (and its extension to non-periodic surface features) for far-field patterning and for long-distance plasmon-based interconnects in plasmonic circuits, energy transfer, and related phenomena.