Embrace the Future: FMB Laboratory team synthesized materials with a record length of surface plasmon-polariton wave

In the article, we demonstrate the optical medium for surface plasmon-polariton wave (SPP) propagation with ultra low losses corresponding to the theoretically limited values. The unique element of the optical medium is an atomically-flat single-crystalline silver thin film that provides extremely low losses. The SPP excited on the surface of such thin films (λ = 780 nm) is characterized by a SPP propagation length equal to 200 µm, which is twice longer than previously reported experimental results and corresponds to theoretically limited values for silver films.

Theoretically, such a large propagation length of surface plasmons for silver was predicted several decades ago, but experimentally demonstrated for the first time on FMN Laboratory samples.

“Toward a theoretically limited SPP propagation length above two hundred microns on an ultra-smooth silver surface”

Aleksandr S. Baburin, Aleksey S. Kalmykov, Roman V. Kirtaev, Dmitriy V. Negrov, Dmitriy O. Moskalev, Ilya A. Ryzhikov, Pavel N. Melentiev, Ilya A. Rodionov, Victor I. Balykin

Optical Materials Express (ImF 2.566)

ttps://www.osapublishing.org/ome/abstract.cfm?uri=ome-8-11-3254