Grating couplers for surface plasmons excited on thin metal films in the Kretschmann-Raether configuration

Schröter, Ursula; Heitmann, D.

doi:10.1103/physrevb.60.4992

Cited by 118 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 14 publications

(13 reference statements)

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“…4, 5). The authors [17] find this astonishing, because the calculated fields distributions inside the PCS appear to be very different for the illumination from different sides.Another example is the so called anomalous full reflection in zeroth diffraction order in transparent PCS, when reflectivity peaks to unity resonantly [11]. It is established that excitation of surface or quasiguided modes in PCS is responsible for this resonant behavior.…”

mentioning

confidence: 94%

“…4, 5). The authors [17] find this astonishing, because the calculated fields distributions inside the PCS appear to be very different for the illumination from different sides.…”

mentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Namely, it was demonstrated [17] experimentally and numerically that the reflectivity from 180 o -rotationally non-invariant (in the PCS plane) metal gratings on a dielectric substrate is always symmetric, whereas the transmission is not. However, the transmission appears to be independent on the side of the illumination, whether it is from the air or from the substrate (see also in Refs.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They manifest themselves via pronounced resonant Wood's anomalies [9,10,11] in the optical spectra, due to the excitation of quasiguided [2,3,12,13,14,15] or surface plasmon [4,16,17,18] or both [19] modes. On the other hand, making complicated unit cells, e.g., characterized by a lack of 180 o -rotational symmetry in the PCS plane [17,20] adds new ways to control the interaction with light.Thus, the understanding of the symmetry and resonance properties of the optical response in PCS with a complicated unit cell becomes important, also for their optical characterization. Measuring reflection from asymmetric structure appears to be not a promising method for the PCS optical characterization, and a question arises, which optical properties are more sensitive to the PCS structure?…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The physics behind is the coupling between photonic and different electronic resonances in such structures. They manifest themselves via pronounced resonant Wood's anomalies [9,10,11] in the optical spectra, due to the excitation of quasiguided [2,3,12,13,14,15] or surface plasmon [4,16,17,18] or both [19] modes. On the other hand, making complicated unit cells, e.g., characterized by a lack of 180 o -rotational symmetry in the PCS plane [17,20] adds new ways to control the interaction with light.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Optical properties of photonic crystal slabs with an asymmetrical unit cell

2005

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Using the unitarity and reciprocity properties of the scattering matrix, we analyse the symmetry and resonant optical properties of the photonic crystal slabs (PCS) with complicated unit cell. We show that the reflectivity is not changed upon the 180 • -rotation of the sample around the normal axis, even in PCS with asymmetrical unit cell. Whereas the transmissivity becomes asymmetrical if the diffraction or absorption are present. The PCS reflectivity peaks to unity near the quasiguided mode resonance for normal light incidence in the absence of diffraction, depolarisation, and absorptive losses. For the oblique incidence the full reflectivity is reached only in symmetrical PCS.PACS numbers: 42.70. Qs, 42.25.Bs The physics of photonic crystal slabs (PCS) [1,2,3] receives much attention in recent years because of many interesting possibilities they open to control the light interaction with matter. The tendency is toward the PCS sophistication: nanostructured metals or semiconductors are included, and the unit cell geometry, using modern technology, becomes more complicated. As a result, new tools for photonic engineering become available. A well known example is the extraordinary optical transmission through sub-wavelength hole arrays in metal films [4,5]. Another promising example are polaritonic crystal slabs with nanostructured semiconductors [6,7,8]. The physics behind is the coupling between photonic and different electronic resonances in such structures. They manifest themselves via pronounced resonant Wood's anomalies [9,10,11] in the optical spectra, due to the excitation of quasiguided [2,3,12,13,14,15] or surface plasmon [4,16,17,18] or both [19] modes. On the other hand, making complicated unit cells, e.g., characterized by a lack of 180 o -rotational symmetry in the PCS plane [17,20] adds new ways to control the interaction with light.Thus, the understanding of the symmetry and resonance properties of the optical response in PCS with a complicated unit cell becomes important, also for their optical characterization. Measuring reflection from asymmetric structure appears to be not a promising method for the PCS optical characterization, and a question arises, which optical properties are more sensitive to the PCS structure? Meanwhile, notwithstanding a long history of the investigations (see, e.g., in [11,21]), starting actually from the optical gratings, which can be understood as one-dimensional (1D) PCS, their properties look sometime amazing and even contradictory.One example is the nontrivial symmetry properties of reflection and transmission from asymmetric PCS. Namely, it was demonstrated [17] experimentally and numerically that the reflectivity from 180 o -rotationally non-invariant (in the PCS plane) metal gratings on a dielectric substrate is always symmetric, whereas the transmission is not. However, the transmission appears to be independent on the side of the illumination, whether it is from the air or from the substrate (see also in Refs. 4, 5). The authors [17] find this astonishing...

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mentioning

confidence: 94%

“…4, 5). The authors [17] find this astonishing, because the calculated fields distributions inside the PCS appear to be very different for the illumination from different sides.…”

mentioning

confidence: 94%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Optical properties of photonic crystal slabs with an asymmetrical unit cell

2005

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Linear Optics of Plasmonic Concepts to Enhance Solar Cell Performance

Plessen

Kumar

Hallermann

et al. 2015

Photon Management in Solar Cells

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Thin-film solar cells, with typical film thicknesses in the range of 1-2 μm, offer the benefit of reduced costs of materials and fabrication as compared to conventional silicon solar cells. However, they have the disadvantage of small absorbance at near-bandgap wavelengths (for example, in the red and near-infrared for silicon), resulting in small photocurrent densities. Common strategies to increase the absorbance are a reduction of reflection losses at the cell surface and a trapping of light in the absorbing layer, both through structuring of the cell surfaces. In recent years, interest has grown in replacing the randomly textured layers conventionally used for this purpose by nanostructures made of metals such as silver and aluminum. They offer the advantages of very compact dimensions, large scattering/diffraction efficiencies, and potentially useful optical near-field effects.The promising optical properties of nanostructures made of silver, aluminum, and a few other metals, for example, gold and copper, result from the fact that they support surface plasmons, which are collective excitations of conduction electrons at the metal surface and able to interact very strongly with the light field [1]. In metal nanoparticles, they are also called particle plasmons (PPs) or localized surface plasmons; on structured metal films, they are also known as surface-plasmon polaritons ( SPPs). Their strong interactions with the light field show themselves, for example, as huge optical cross-sections for light absorption and scattering. The large values of these cross-sections, which are caused by the great number of conduction electrons oscillating in concert even in relatively small optically excited metal nanoparticles [2], make them interesting for the incoupling of light into photovoltaic layers. In addition, the nanoparticles show a rich spectral behavior. Their spectra can be controlled by various factors: the choice of the metal, their shape and size, their dielectric environment, and the electromagnetic coupling between them. This control provides the potential for tuning the plasmon excitations into spectral regions where they are the most useful for applications in solar cells. An additional focus of interest are the optical near fields at and near the metal surface;

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