Spatio-temporal second-order quantum correlations of surface plasmon polaritons

TL;DR

This paper introduces an experimental method to observe quantum coherence of surface plasmon polaritons emitted by nitrogen vacancy centers, using leakage radiation microscopy to explore wave-particle duality at the quantum level.

Contribution

It presents a novel experimental approach for measuring spatio-temporal second-order quantum correlations of surface plasmon polaritons.

Findings

Successful observation of quantum coherence in surface plasmon polaritons

Demonstration of wave-particle duality in plasmonic systems

New microscopy technique for quantum plasmonics

Abstract

We present an experimental methodology to observe spatio-temporal second-order quantum coherence of surface plasmon polaritons which are emitted by nitrogen vacancy color centers attached at the apex of an optical tip. The approach relies on leakage radiation microscopy in the Fourier space and we use this approach to test wave-particle duality for surface plasmon polaritons.