Leakage radiation microscopy of surface plasmon polaritons

TL;DR

Leakage radiation microscopy (LRM) is a powerful optical technique for directly imaging and analyzing surface plasmon polariton (SPP) propagation on metal films, providing detailed insights into plasmonic device interactions.

Contribution

This paper reviews the principles and methodology of LRM for SPPs, highlighting its versatility and recent applications in plasmonic device analysis.

Findings

LRM enables direct quantitative imaging of SPP propagation.

LRM can analyze interactions of SPPs with 2D plasmonic devices.

Theoretical analysis of leaky SPP waves supports LRM applications.

Abstract

We review the principle and methodology of leakage radiation microscopy (LRM) applied to surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). Therefore we first analyse in detail the electromagnetic theory of leaky SPP waves. We show that LRM is a versatile optical far-field method allowing direct quantitative imaging and analysis of SPP propagation on thin metal films. We illustrate the LRM potentiality by analyzing the propagation of SPP waves interacting with several two dimensional plasmonic devices realized and studied in the recent years.