A single-crystalline silver plasmonic circuit for visible quantum emitters

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel single-crystalline silver plasmonic circuit that enables efficient visible light manipulation and quantum emitter interaction, overcoming previous limitations of gold-based plasmonic devices.

Contribution

The authors fabricated complex plasmonic nanostructures in single-crystalline silver, demonstrating controlled excitation and emission of visible quantum emitters with high efficiency.

Findings

Controlled remote excitation of fluorophores via waveguide modes

High-efficiency emission of visible luminescence into the waveguide

Enabling nanoscale light-matter interaction studies in the visible spectrum

Abstract

Plasmonic waveguides are key elements in nanophotonic devices serving as optical interconnects between nanoscale light sources and detectors. Multimode operation in plasmonic two-wire transmission lines promises important degrees of freedom for near-field manipulation and information encoding. However, highly confined plasmon propagation in gold nanostructures is typically limited to the near-infrared region due to ohmic losses, excluding all visible quantum emitters from plasmonic circuitry. Here, we report on top-down fabrication of complex plasmonic nanostructures in single-crystalline silver plates. We demonstrate controlled remote excitation of a small ensemble of fluorophores by a set of waveguide modes and emission of the visible luminescence into the waveguide with high efficiency. This approach opens up the study of nanoscale light-matter interaction between complex plasmonic waveguides and a large variety of quantum emitters available in the visible spectral range.