Local surface plasmons launched through AFM lithographic nanostructures and propagation of these fields monitored in real-time using a fluorescence near-field probe method.
Published: 2006
Language: eng
Number of pages: 129
ISBN-13: 9780494210420
Description: Surface Plasmons (SPs) are electromagnetic surface waves that propagate at a metal-dielectric interface. The SP field maintains maximum intensity at the interface and decays away exponentially in the directions perpendicular to the interface. SP fields are only detectable in the near-field region, precluding the use of conventional microscopes to observe such fields. Recently, a simplified method to detect the SP nearfield in the far-field has been created. This technique functions, as we have employed it, by spin coating a polymer-dye layer atop a plasmon carrying metal surface and monitoring the propagation of the SP in real-time through the dye fluorescence. It has been demonstrated that a SP mode can be launched through a grating, where the grating provides a mechanism to couple photon energy into a local SP mode, i.e. the SP mode is confined to the region around the grating. We have utilized a polymer template-chemical etching method to fabricate nanometer-sized gratings in an effort to couple photon energy into a SP mode.
Notes: Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-03, page: 1491.

Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Toronto, 2006.

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