Coupling of light from an optical fiber taper into silver nanowires

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to efficiently couple light from optical fibers into silver nanowires, enabling control over plasmon excitation and paving the way for integrated plasmonic devices.

Contribution

It introduces a novel technique for coupling light into silver nanowires using fiber tapers, including multi-wire coupling and polarization control.

Findings

Efficient coupling of light into nanowires achieved.

Propagation of plasmons at nanowire ends and midsection demonstrated.

Multi-nanowire coupling from a single fiber shown.

Abstract

We report the coupling of photons from an optical fiber taper to surface plasmon modes of silver nanowires. The launch of propagating plasmons can be realized not only at ends of the nanowires, but also at the midsection. The degree of the coupling can be controlled by adjusting the light polarization. In addition, we present the coupling of light into multiple nanowires from a single optical fiber taper simultaneously. Our demonstration offers a novel method for optimizing plasmon coupling into nanoscale metallic waveguides and promotes the realization of highly integrated plasmonic devices.