Focusing and manipulation of surface plasmon polaritons by laser fabricated dielectric structures - art. no. 664205

Rapid advance of nanostructuring technologies offers new possibilities for flexible and low-cost fabrication of plasmonic components and devices. In this contribution, we study applications of laser-based nonlinear lithography for the fabrication of dielectric surface-plasmon-polariton (SPP)-structures. These structures can be used for localization, guiding, and manipulation of SPPs on a subwavelength scale. Effective excitation of SPPs on dielectric structures and focusing of the generated SPPs are studied. The characterization of the SPP structures is performed by plasmon leakage radiation microscopy. Laser-based nonlinear lithography, e. g. two-photon polymerization technique, allows the fabrication of dielectric waveguides, splitters, and couplers directly on metal surfaces. The fabricated dielectric structures on metal films are demonstrated to be very efficient for the excitation of SPPs. Using these structures, excitation, focusing, and guiding will be demonstrated.