Surface plasmon polaritons with extended lifetime

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that Fano resonances can significantly extend the lifetime and propagation distance of surface plasmon polaritons on metal nanowires, with simulations showing up to 30-fold intensity enhancement.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel approach using Fano resonances to substantially increase SPP lifetime and propagation distance, surpassing previous limitations.

Findings

SPP intensity can be enhanced by approximately 30 times at a fixed distance

Fano resonances can multiplicatively improve SPP propagation

No optimization was performed, indicating potential for further enhancement

Abstract

The propagation distance of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) on metal nanowires is severely limited by their short lifetime, primarily due to strong metallic losses. In this work, we show that the lifetime-and thus the propagation distance-of SPPs can be significantly extended through the use of Fano resonances. Our FDTD simulations demonstrate that the SPP intensity at a fixed propagation distance can be enhanced by approximately 30 times. Furthermore, this enhancement factor is multiplicative with improvements achieved through other methods. We emphasize that this result represents only a starting point, as no optimization was performed due to limited computational resources.