Independently analyzing different

surface plasmon polariton modes on

silver nanowire
∗
Aiping Liu,1,2,3 Chang-Ling Zou,2 , 3 Xifeng Ren,2,3, Xiao Xiong,2 , 3
Yong-Jing Cai,2 , 3 Haitao Liu,4 Fang-Wen Sun,2 , 3 Guang-Can Guo,2 , 3
and Guo-Ping Guo2 , 3
1 Instituteof Signal Processing and Transmission, Nanjing University of Posts and
Telecommunications, Nanjing 210003, China
2 Key Laboratory of Quantum Information, University of Science and Technology of China,

CAS, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China

3 Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information & Quantum Physics, University of

Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China

4 Key Laboratory of Optical Information Science and Technology, Ministry of Education,

Institute of Modern Optics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China

∗
[email protected]

Abstract: In this paper, surface plasmon polariton (SPP) modes on

silver nanowire (AgNW), with different field symmetric, are studied by
different near field methods, respectively. In the experiment, the excitation
and detection of SPPs are performed by two probes of near field scanning
optical microscope (NSOM) simultaneously, which realizes the study of
SPPs in complete near field. By controlling the experimental conditions,
two of the fundamental SPP modes are detected separately and their
intensity distributions on AgNW are given by the NSOM images. In the
discussion, creeping wave (CW) is introduced to analyze the experimental
results, which improves the coincidence of the experimental results and the
theoretical calculations. A detailed characterization of SPPs modes in near
field, which gives a further insight into optical properties of AgNW, will
benefit integrated optical circuits.
© 2014 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: (240.6680) Surface plasmons; (180.4243) Near-field microscopy; (230.7370)
Waveguides.

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#216520 - $15.00 USD Received 7 Jul 2014; revised 18 Aug 2014; accepted 26 Aug 2014; published 17 Sep 2014
(C) 2014 OSA 22 September 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 19 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.023372 | OPTICS EXPRESS 23373
1. Introduction
The integration of optical circuits calls for binding light into nanoscale. Surface Plasmon Po-
lariton (SPP) has attracted numerous attentions, since it is collective oscillation of electrons on
metal and can be confined in a sub-wavelength volume [1]. SPP is free from light diffraction
limit and can propagate along the interface between metal and dielectric, where its energy is
bounded. Because of its unique properties, SPP has been used in many areas, such as anten-
na [2], optical trapping [3], super-resolution imaging [4], invisible cloak [5, 6], and so on. One
of the most promising applications is in the photonic integration circuits (PICs).
Silver nanowire (AgNW), as one of the typical SPP nanowaveguide [7–11], holds several
advantages for practical applications, such as easy preparation, regular and uniform geome-
try, and relatively low absorption losses [12, 13]. Great efforts have been devoted to study the
optical properties of AgNW, where subwavelength waveguiding [14–18], quantum properties
of SPPs [19–21] and information processing [22, 23] have been reported. Those studies are
mostly performed through free space excitation or collection, for instance, coupling light from
far field to the nanowire end and detecting electromagnetic field by near field scanning opti-
cal microscope (NSOM). As a result, the detected SPPs usually contain several modes and the
properties of individual mode can not be revealed exactly. In order to give a further insight into
SPP on AgNW, it is necessary to study the properties of individual SPP mode experimentally
and theoretically.
In this work, complete near field methods, where both excitation and detection of SPPs are
performed in near field, are used to study SPPs on AgNW, which realize the separated detection
of different SPP modes. In the experiment, a near field scanning optical microscope (NSOM)
with two probes is used to study SPP on AgNW, where one probe is used for excitation and
the other one for collection. The intensity distributions of SPP2 and SPP3 are given by NSOM
images and theoretical analysis is also given for comparison and further study. In the analysis
of SPPs on AgNW, we find that creeping wave (CW), one kind of surface wave, may also exist,
which changes the intensity distribution of SPPs on AgNW. Such an analysis of SPPs on AgNW
will benefit the development of integrated optical circuit, and a more comprehensive analysis is
expected.

2. Experimental setup and methods

The AgNW used in the experiment is prepared by chemical method [24, 25]. They have an
average diameter of 250 nm and are coated with 25-nm-thick SiO2 , as shown in the inset of
Fig. 1(a). The alcoholic solution (containing AgNW) is spun on the SiO2 substrate and covered
with 50-nm-thick Polymethyle Methacrylate (PMMA) after volatilization.
In the experiment, two Au/Cr−coated NSOM probes are utilized simultaneously, with the
excitation probe connected to the Laser at λ = 671 nm and the collection probe connected to an
Avalanche Photo Diode (APD). The tip diameters are 100 nm for the collection probe and 200
nm for the excitation probe. Two MultiView 4000TM systems control the probes independently
and acquire data to produce topography and NSOM images [26, 27]. To study surface waves
on the AgNW, two different methods are adopted: (1) dynamic collection and static excitation
(SE), (2) static collection and dynamic excitation (DE). In the SE method as shown in Fig.
1(b), surface waves are excited by the NSOM probe resting on one end facet of AgNW and are
detected by the other probe scanning along the AgNW. While in the DE method as shown in
Fig. 1(c), surface waves are excited by the scanning probe and collected by the static probe at
the end facet of AgNW.
The cross section of the studied structure is illustrated in Fig. 1(a). For uniform AgN-
W, SPP modes could be excited and propagate along it with their electric field varying as
e−iω t+i2π neff z/λ , where ω and λ are laser frequency and vacuum wavelength. Here, the effec-

#216520 - $15.00 USD Received 7 Jul 2014; revised 18 Aug 2014; accepted 26 Aug 2014; published 17 Sep 2014
(C) 2014 OSA 22 September 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 19 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.023372 | OPTICS EXPRESS 23374
 (a) (b) LD
671nm

y
APD
z x 500 nm

(c) APD

Ag NW
PMMA
LD
SiO 2 671nm

(d) (e) (f)

SPP1 SPP2 SPP3

Fig. 1. The schematic of the studied structure. (a) The cross section of SiO2 -coated AgNW
covered by a layer of PMMA on SiO2 substrate (not to scale). The inset is the SEM image
of SiO2 -coated AgNW. (b) and (c) The experimental setups of SE and DE methods, respec-
tively. (d)-(f) The electric field distributions of SPP1, SPP2 and SPP3, respectively, on the
cross section of AgNW.

tive mode refractive index neff is a complex number, whose real and imaginary parts relate to
propagation phase evolution and loss. With finite element method, we numerically calculated
three bounded propagation modes of the AgNW, which are signed as SPP1, SPP2 and SPP3,
with the electric field distributions shown in Figs. 1(d)-1(f). The effective refractive indices are
n1 = 1.67 + 0.0138i, n2 = 1.53 + 0.0113i and n3 = 1.48 + 0.0116i for SPP1, SPP2 and SPP3,
respectively. In the simulation, the permittivity of Ag is −18.445 + 1.203i corresponding to
λ = 671 nm, and the indexes of SiO2 and PMMA are 1.47 and 1.49, respectively [28].

3. Results and discussions

Figure 2(a) gives the NSOM image of surface waves on a 5-µ m-long AgNW obtained by SE
method, with a three-dimensional intensity image in the inset. There are several obvious inten-
sity nodes along the AgNW and a big peak at the end facet. The intensity profile along blue
dashed cut line is plotted in Fig. 2(b). From the excitation end (down left) to the distal end (up
right) of the AgNW, the average intensity of surface waves decays at first and recovers near the
distal end, with an intensity node period (distance between adjacent nodes) about 267 nm.
In the SE method, the excitation probe is at the end facet S of AgNW as shown in the inset
of Fig. 2(b). Since the probe is Au/Cr−coated, it can work as a metal antenna to enhance
the coupling efficiency [11, 29]. The excitation polarization is manipulated to make SPP1 and
SPP3 modes being excited efficiently. Since SPP2 is an odd symmetric mode and its excitation

#216520 - $15.00 USD Received 7 Jul 2014; revised 18 Aug 2014; accepted 26 Aug 2014; published 17 Sep 2014
(C) 2014 OSA 22 September 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 19 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.023372 | OPTICS EXPRESS 23375
 (a) (b) 1.0
SPP3+CW SPP3
D
0.8 S SPP2 AgNW C

Intensity distribution (a.u.)

SPP1
z l-z
0.6 z
0

0.4
1µm
0.2

0.0

-0.2
0 1 2 3 4
z (µm)

Fig. 2. Experimental result of surface waves detected by SE method. (a) NSOM image of
AgNW detected by SE method. The inset is three-dimensional intensity image of surface
waves. (b) Intensity profile of surface waves on AgNW. The red solid line is intensity profile
of surface waves along the blue dashed cut line in (a). The black (purple) solid line is the
calculated result fitted with SPP3 and CW (only SPP3 with a normalized intensity offset of
−0.2). The inset is the illustration of surface waves propagating on AgNW with SE method.
S and C are the end facets of AgNW. D is a point on the surface of AgNW.

polarization is different from those of SPP1 and SPP3 [17], the excitation of SPP2 is neglected
in the SE method. What is more, SPP1 is difficult to be detected since its energy is mostly
localized on the interface between AgNW and SiO2 substrate. The effective mode area of SPP1
is about 0.028 µ m2 [16, 30]. while the distance between the location of SPP1 and the detection
probe is about 350 nm, which make the intensity of SPP1 attenuate dramatically to be 0.03
in the unit of that in the interface. So the energy of SPP1 detected by the probe can also be
neglected, and it is reasonable to suppose that SPP3 mainly determines the energy distribution
on the AgNW except at the end facet as shown in Fig. 2(a). When SPP3 reaches the end facet,
it will be scattered and reflected, thus counter-propagating SPP3 mode is involved, too. Then,
the field detected by the scanning probe can be described as
e3 ein3 k0 z + η3 ein3 k0 (l−z) ,
Edet,SPP3 (z) = A (1)

where k0 = 2λπ is the vacuum wave vector, A e3 is the detected field amplitude of SPP3, and η3
is the detected amplitude of backward SPP3. Note that, the field at end facet C is very complex
and can not be simply described by Eq. (1), which is only applicable for the electric field on the
uniform side surface. According to Eq. (1), a calculated field intensity distribution is given by
e3 = 10.0 and η3 = 1.0, as shown by the purple curve in Fig. 2(b)
I(z) = |Edet,SPP3 (z)|2 with A
(offset −0.2 for clarity).
It should be noted that, there is a modulation on the envelope of the detected intensity, which
does not exist on the calculated result, where only SPP3 is considered. What is more, the de-
tected period of intensity nodes (267 nm) greatly shifts from the interference period caused
by counter-propagating SPP3, which is 232nm obtained by λ /2Re (n3 ). So it is supposed that
some other kind of surface waves are detected together with SPP3. In previous studies of n-
ear field optics, creeping wave (CW), which accompanies with the excitation of SPPs, has been
found to play an important role in surface waves on flat metallic surface [31–34]. It is transverse
√
wave propagating along the surface of metal with its amplitude suffering a 1/ z attenuation,
with z being the distance from the excitation point [33]. Therefore, we take CW into consider-
ation when analyzing SPP modes on AgNW. Since the length of the studied AgNW is short,

#216520 - $15.00 USD Received 7 Jul 2014; revised 18 Aug 2014; accepted 26 Aug 2014; published 17 Sep 2014
(C) 2014 OSA 22 September 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 19 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.023372 | OPTICS EXPRESS 23376
 (a) (b) 1.0
SPP2
SPP2+CW SPP2+CW
0.8 D

Intensity distribution (a.u.)

S AgNW C
0.6 z l-z
0 z
0.4

0.2

0.0
1.2 µm
-0.2
0 1 2 3 4 5
z (µm)

Fig. 3. Experimental result of surface waves detected by DE method. (a) NSOM image
of AgNW detected by DE method. (b) Intensity profile of surface waves on AgNW. The
red line is detected intensity profile of surface waves along the blue dashed cut line in (a).
The black (purple) solid line is the calculated result fitted with SPP2 and CW (SPP2 only,
with an normalized intensity offset of −0.2). The inset is the illustration of surface waves
propagating along AgNW.

√
the model of CW can be taken as an approximate field form of eikCW z / z for simplicity, with
a propagation length of 1−2 µ m, and a propagation wave vector kCW ≈ k0 . Then the field
detected by the scanning probe in the SE method can be given as
eCW eik0 z /√z + A
Edet,tot (z) = A e3ein3 k0 z + η3 ein3 k0 (l−z) , (2)

where A eCW is the detected field amplitude of CW. Considering the effect of CW, a revised result
eCW = 12.0, A
is given by I(z) = |Edet,tot (z)|2 , as shown by the black curve in Fig. 2(b), with A e3 =
1.0 and η3 = 4.2. The intensity node period of the fitted black curve is more consistent with
the experimental result (red line), compared with the purple curve given by Eq. (1). Besides,
the period of the calculated intensity nodes is 260 nm as considering CW, which agrees well
with the experimental result 267 nm. It should be noted that, the beating phenomenon between
SPP3 and CW (1.4 µ m) is not obvious in the detected intensity profile (red line), which may
attribute to experimental noise and ambient disturbance.
To further study the SPPs on AgNW, we investigated another 6-µ m-length AgNW by DE
method, where the collection probe is resting at the left end facet (S) and the excitation probe
scans along the AgNW with an optimized excitation polarization for SPP2. When the probe
reaches one side of the AgNW, the electric field polarized on x-direction excites SPP2 efficient-
ly. The excitation probe used in the DE method is an asymmetric excitation source, which is
different from the case in the SE method that the excitation probe is a symmetric excitation
source. To make SPP2 being detected efficiently, the detection probe is positioned on the end
facet with a small departure from the center, since the intensity distribution of different SPP
modes on the cross section of the AgNW are different. The intensity of the NSOM image in
Fig. 3(a) corresponds to the signal detected at the end facet S. In contrast to the SE method, there
is almost no signal detected when the excitation probe is directly over the AgNW [35], and the
intensity distribution around the AgNW is separated into two parallel parts. The intensity along
the blue dashed cut line in Fig. 3(a) is shown in Fig. 3(b). It decays rapidly and then resonates
with a big peak at the right end, with intensity node period of 253 nm and beating period of 1.1
µ m. Compared to SPP3 on the 5-µ m-length AgNW, the beating phenomenon is prominent for
SPP2 on the 6-µ m-length AgNW, which may attribute to the relative less influence of the end

#216520 - $15.00 USD Received 7 Jul 2014; revised 18 Aug 2014; accepted 26 Aug 2014; published 17 Sep 2014
(C) 2014 OSA 22 September 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 19 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.023372 | OPTICS EXPRESS 23377
facet in a longer AgNW.
With DE method, the detected field can be given as
√
Edet,tot (z) = BeCW eikCW z / z + (Be2 + η2 ei2n2 k0 (l−z) )ein2 k0 z , (3)

where BeCW and Be2 are the detected amplitudes of CW and SPP2 from the excited probe, re-
spectively, η2 is the detected amplitude of backward SPP2 due to the reflection at end facet
C.
We plot the intensity profile according to Eq. (3) with BeCW = 8.7, Be2 = 1.0 and η2 = 3.9,
as shown in Fig. 3(b) (black solid curve). The calculated curve agrees well with the detected
intensity profile except the abrupt enhancement near the end facet C, which corresponds to
enhanced excitation of CW and SPP modes at the AgNW end facet. The well agreement shows
a definite evidence of the co-existence of SPPs and CW, which can be further confirmed by the
unmatched purple solid line fitted only with SPP2 mode as shown in Fig. 3(b). We can see that,
CW accounts for the main part of surface waves since BeCW is much bigger than Be2 . Regardless
of the end peak, the propagation length of surface waves on AgNW is fitted to be 1.3 µ m, which
is between those of CW and SPP3.

4. Conclusions
In this work, different SPP modes on AgNW are studied in near field separately, and a reason-
able theoretical analysis is given as well. SPP2 and SPP3 on AgNW are identified by DE and
SE methods respectively, which are both realized by two NSOM probes. What is more, CW
is taken into consideration in the analysis of SPP on AgNW, which improves the consistence
of theoretical and experimental results. Such an analysis of individual SPP mode propagating
along the AgNW is important for information transmission, which will promote the application
of AgNW in nano-optical circuits.

Acknowledgments
This work was funded by NBRP (grant nos. 2011CBA00200 and 2011CB921200), the Inno-
vation Funds from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant no. 60921091), NNSF (grant nos.
10904137, 10934006 and 11374289), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Univer-
sities (grant no. WK2470000005), and NCET. H.T.L acknowledges financial supports from 973
Program (2013CB328701), NSFC (61322508) and NSFT (11JCZDJC15400). A.P.L acknowl-
edges financial supports from NNSF (grant nos. 11274178, 11311140250 and 61475197), the
Scientific Research Foundation of Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications (grant
no. NY212011).

#216520 - $15.00 USD Received 7 Jul 2014; revised 18 Aug 2014; accepted 26 Aug 2014; published 17 Sep 2014
(C) 2014 OSA 22 September 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 19 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.023372 | OPTICS EXPRESS 23378