Perfect coupling of light to surface plasmons by coherent absorption

• Main Authors: Noh, Heeso, Chong, Yidong, Stone, A. Douglas, Cao, Hui
• Other Authors: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Physics::Optics and light
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/101038; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/18285
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

We show theoretically that coherent light can be completely absorbed and transferred to surface plasmons in a two- or three-dimensional metallic nanostructure by exciting it with the time-reversed mode of the corresponding surface plasmon laser (“spaser”). The narrow-band perfect absorption is a generalization and application of the concept of critical coupling to a nanocavity with surface plasmon resonances. Perfect coupling of light to nanostructures has potential applications to nanoscale probing as well as background-free spectroscopy and ultrasensitive detection or sensing.