Tunable surface plasmon polaritons in Ag composite films by adding dielectrics or semiconductors

We demonstrate that the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) properties of the silver composite films can be tuned by modest additions of silicon oxide or silicon. The dispersion relations deviate from that of pure silver films, and exhibit the capability to shift the surface plasmon frequency and provide larger SPP wave vectors at longer wavelengths. The effective permittivities are modeled phenomenologically by taking into account both filling ratios and size effects. These types of tunable composite films have various useful applications in areas, such as superlens imaging, SPP based sensing, enhanced photoluminescence, and SPP based photovoltatics. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3600661]