Surface plasmon launching by polariton superradiance

TL;DR

This paper proposes a collective excitation scheme to efficiently launch surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) by overcoming phase matching limitations, demonstrated through near-infrared graphene SPPs, with a comprehensive theoretical analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a novel collective excitation method for phase-matched SPP launching, incorporating non-Markovian effects and applicable to various surface polaritons.

Findings

Successful theoretical analysis of near-infrared graphene SPP launching

Demonstration of collective enhancement for directional SPP emission

Inclusion of dispersive and dissipative properties in the model

Abstract

The condition of phase matching prohibits the transfer of excitation from free-space photons to surface plasmon polaritons (SPP). We propose and analyze a scheme that excites an ensemble of emitters in a collective state, which is phase matched with the SPP by the optical pulses used for its preparation. By a collective enhancement the ensemble, hence, emits an SPP in a well defined direction. We demonstrate the scheme by analyzing the launching of near-infrared graphene SPP. Our theory incorporates the dispersive and dissipative properties of the plasmon modes to evaluate the non-Markovian emission by the ensembles and will also be applicable for other types of surface polaritons.