Reflection of Cylindrical Surface Waves

The reflection of the radially polarized surface wave on a metal wire at an abrupt end is derived. This theory allows for straightforward calculation of the reflection coefficient, including the phase and the amplitude, which will prove useful to the many applications in nanoplasmonics and terahertz spectroscopy. The theory shows excellent quantitative agreement with past comprehensive numerical simulations for small wires and for predicting the minima in reflection for larger wires. Using this theory, the wavelength dependent reflection is calculated for gold rods of diameter 10 nm, 26 nm and 85 nm, from which the Fabry-Perot resonance wavelengths are found. The Fabry-Perot resonances show good agreement with experimentally measured surface plasmon resonances in nanorods. This demonstrates the predictive ability of the theory for applications involving widely-used nanorods, optical antennas and plasmonic resonators. (c) 2009 Optical Society of America