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Single-Mode to Multi-Mode Crossover in Thin-Load Polymethyl Methacrylate Plasmonic Waveguides

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Abstract

Mode character and mode dispersion of sub-60-nm-thick polymethyl methacrylate dielectric-loaded surface plasmon-polariton waveguides (DLSPPWs) are investigated using photoemission electron microscopy and finite element method simulations. Experiment and simulation show excellent agreement and allow identifying a crossover from single-mode to multi-mode waveguiding as a function of excitation wavelength λ and DLSSPW cross section. Experiment and simulations yield, furthermore, indications for the formation of a surface plasmon-polariton cavity mode in the close vicinity of the waveguides.

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Notes

  1. UV light can potentially cause damage to the chemical structure of PMMA such as cleavage of bonds. These alterations are reported for deep UV (254 nm, hν = 4.9 eV) [26]; in fact, PMMA is routinely used as a resist for UV lithography [27].

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the Collaborative Research Center 677 “Function by Switching.”

Jacek Fiutowski, Jost Adam, and Till Leißner thank the Fabrikant Mads Clausen’s Foundation for a research grant supporting this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics, University of Kiel, Leibnizstr. 19, D-24118, Kiel, Germany

    Malte Großmann, Alwin Klick & Michael Bauer

  2. Mads Clausen Institute, Centre for Nano Optics, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, DK5230, Odense, Denmark

    Martin Thomaschewski

  3. Mads Clausen Institute, NanoSYD, University of Southern Denmark, Alsion 2, DK6400, Sønderborg, Denmark

    Arkadiusz Jarosław Goszczak, Elżbieta Karolina Sobolewska, Till Leißner, Jost Adam, Jacek Fiutowski & Horst-Günter Rubahn

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  1. Malte Großmann
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Großmann, M., Thomaschewski, M., Klick, A. et al. Single-Mode to Multi-Mode Crossover in Thin-Load Polymethyl Methacrylate Plasmonic Waveguides. Plasmonics 13, 1441–1448 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-017-0649-3

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