Highly efficient interfacing of guided plasmons and photons in nanowires

TL;DR

This paper presents a highly efficient, broad-band method for converting guided plasmons to photons using a simple butt-coupling technique, enabling advanced nanophotonic applications.

Contribution

It introduces a robust, broad-band butt-coupling method for connecting metallic nanowires and dielectric nanofibers with over 95% efficiency, advancing plasmon-photon interfacing.

Findings

Conversion efficiencies above 95% in visible spectrum

Near-infrared efficiencies close to 100%

Potential for broad-band high-throughput near-field microscopy

Abstract

Successful exploitations of strongly confined surface plasmon-polaritons critically rely on their efficient and rapid conversion to lossless channels. We demonstrate a simple, robust, and broad-band butt-coupling technique for connecting a metallic nanowire and a dielectric nanofiber. Conversion efficiencies above 95% in the visible and close to 100% in the near infrared can be achieved with realistic parameters. Moreover, by combining butt-coupling with nanofocusing, we propose a broad-band high-throughput near-field optical microscope.