Surface plasmon polariton propagation in organic nanofiber based plasmonic waveguides

Plasmonic wave packet propagation is monitored in dielectric-loaded surface plasmon polariton waveguides realized from para-hexaphenylene nanofibers deposited onto a 60 nm thick gold film. Using interferometric time resolved two-photon photoemission electron microscopy we are able to determine phase and group velocity of the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) waveguiding mode (0.967c and 0.85c at lambda(Laser) = 812 nm) as well as the effective propagation length (39 mu m) along the fiber-gold interface. We furthermore observe that the propagation properties of the SPP waveguiding mode are governed by the cross section of the waveguide. (c) 2013 Optical Society of America