High-Q surface-plasmon-polariton whispering-gallery microcavity

Bumki Min, Eric Ostby, Volker Sorger, Erick Ulin-Avila, Lan Yang, Xiang Zhang () and Kerry Vahala ()
Additional contact information
Bumki Min: Thomas J. Watson Laboratory of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
Eric Ostby: Thomas J. Watson Laboratory of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
Volker Sorger: Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, 5130 Etcheverry Hall, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
Erick Ulin-Avila: Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, 5130 Etcheverry Hall, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
Lan Yang: Thomas J. Watson Laboratory of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
Xiang Zhang: Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, 5130 Etcheverry Hall, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
Kerry Vahala: Thomas J. Watson Laboratory of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA

Nature, 2009, vol. 457, issue 7228, 455-458

Abstract: An ideal Q-factor Interest in the properties of surface plasmon polaritons is intense because of their relevance to plasmonics and nanophotonics. They are electron density waves excited at the interface between metals and dielectric materials and interact strongly with light at a subwavelength-scale. A good starting point for useful applications would be a plasmonic micro- or nanocavity with a high figure of merit, or Q-value; a high Q factor means that the plasmons are strongly confined and bounce around many times inside the cavity before escaping, resulting in a rich range of physical properties. Until now the Q-factor for plasmonic resonant cavities has been limited to values less than one hundred for visible and near-infrared wavelengths. Now Min et al. demonstrate a high-Q 'whispering gallery' microcavity for surface plasmons that is fabricated by coating the surface of high-Q silica microresonator with a thin layer of noble metal. This structure enables room-temperature operation with a Q-factor of around 1,380 in the near infrared for surface plasmon modes — a nearly ideal value. The work also includes a coupling scheme where a tapered optical fibre is in near-contact with the cavity, which provides a convenient way for selectively exciting and probing confined plasmon modes.

Date: 2009
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature07627 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:457:y:2009:i:7228:d:10.1038_nature07627

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature07627

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().