Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Compaijen, P. J., Malyshev, V. A., & Knoester, J. (2013). Surface-mediated light transmission in metal nanoparticle chains. Physical Review. B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, 87(20), 205437-1-205437-7. [205437]. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.87.205437 Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons).Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. We study theoretically the efficiency of the transmission of optical signals through a linear chain consisting of identical and equidistantly spaced silver metal nanoparticles. Two situations are compared: the transmission efficiency through an isolated chain and through a chain in close proximity of a reflecting substrate. The Ohmic and radiative losses in each nanoparticle strongly affect the transmission efficiency of an isolated chain and suppress it to large extent. It is shown that the presence of a reflecting interface may enhance the guiding properties of the array. The reason for this is the energy exchange between the surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) of the array and the substrate. We focus on the dependence of the transmission efficiency on the frequency and polarization of the incoming light, as well as on the influence of the array-interface spacing. Sometimes the effect of these parameters turns out to be counterintuitive, reflecting a complicated interplay of several transmission channels.

Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Abstract: We consider the dispersion relations of the optical excitations in a chain of silver nanoparticles situated above a metal substrate and show that they are hybrid plasmon polaritons, composed of localized surface plasmons and surface plasmon polaritons. We demonstrate a strong dependence of the system's optical properties on the plasma frequency of the substrate and that choosing the appropriate plasma frequency allows one to engineer the modes to have a very high, very low or even negative group velocity. For the latter, Poynting vector calculations reveal opposite phase and energy propagation. We expect that our results will contribute to the design of nano-optical devices with specific transport properties.

We theoretically investigate the time-dependent transport of a localized surface plasmon excitation through a linear array of identical and equidistantly spaced metal nanoparticles. Two different signals propagating through the array are found: one traveling with the group velocity of the surface plasmon polaritons of the system and damped exponentially, and the other running with the speed of light and decaying in a power-law fashion, as x −1 and x −2 for the transversal and longitudinal polarizations, respectively. The latter resembles the Sommerfeld-Brillouin forerunner and has not been identified in previous studies. The contribution of this signal dominates the plasmon transport at large distances. In addition, even though this signal is spread in the propagation direction and has the lateral dimension larger than the wavelength, the field profile close to the chain axis does not change with distance, indicating that this part of the signal is confined to the array.

Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Compaijen, P. J., Malyshev, V. A., & Knoester, J. (2016). Elliptically polarized modes for the unidirectional excitation of surface plasmon polaritons. Optics Express, 24(4), 3858-3872. https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.24.003858 Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons).Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Abstract:We propose a new method for the directional excitation of surface plasmon polaritons by a metal nanoparticle antenna, based on the elliptical polarization of the normal modes of the antenna when it is in close proximity to a metallic substrate. The proposed theoretical model allows for the full characterization of the modes, giving the dipole configuration, frequency and lifetime. As a proof of principle, we have performed calculations for a dimer antenna and we report that surface plasmon polaritons can be excited in a given direction with an intensity of more than two orders of magnitude larger than in the opposite direction. Furthermore, using the fact that the response to any excitation can be written as a superposition of the normal modes, we show that this directionality can easily be accessed by exciting the system with a local source or a plane wave. Lastly, exploiting the interference between the normal modes, the directionality can be switched for a specific excitation. We envision the proposed mechanism to be a very useful tool for the design of antennas in layered media.

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