Designing plasmonic structures

This thesis describes methods and results used in the design of various photonic structures. The emphasis of this thesis is in the theoretical and computational methods employed in the design. Many structures were fabricated and experimentally characterized confirming simulation results. Theoretically, surface plasmons (SPs) or more generally the study of light near micro- or nano-fabricated metallic surfaces, play a major role in all structures in this thesis. An effective work-flow in designing "plasmonic" structures is detailed. Various applications are then discussed: (1) Enhanced transmission through subwavelength apertures in metal films; (2) long range SP hybrid waveguides for use in the area of micro-electronics; (3) circular micro-polarizers, which also filter for a specific color band, combined with linear polarizers for full stokes polarization imaging; and (4) using plasmonic couplers to increase efficiency of metal-insulator-metal (MIM) tunnel junction detectors for use in the low THz. General conclusions about the efficacy of plasmonic structures, or the lack thereof, in these applications are discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Physics

Grantor dc:publisher

Colorado School of Mines. Arthur Lakes Library

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Flammer, P. David

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Collins, Reuben T.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Furtak, Thomas E. (Thomas Elton), 1949-
• Durfee, Charles G.
• Martin, P. A.

• surface wave
• surface plasmon
• resonance
• Plasmonics
• Photonics
• finite element simulation

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright of the original work is retained by the author.

Language dc:language.iso

eng, English

Identifier

T 7516

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.mines.edu:11124/12282