Plasmon-suppressed vertically-standing nanometal structures

Abstract

The authors report plasmon-suppressed vertically-standing nanometal-stripe-array structures fabricated by Ar ion sputtering after electron-beam lithography and Ag deposition. When the width of the Ag stripe is comparable to the skin depth of a metal (similar to 20 nm), the particle plasmon resonance is strongly suppressed for electric fields oscillating perpendicular to the length of the stripe. This suppression of the particle plasmon excitation is attributed to the limited movement of free electrons localized near the bottom of Ag stripe. This plasmon-suppressed vertically-standing nanometal structures could be used for broad band polarizers. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.