Surface-plasmon-assisted electromagnetic wave propagation

Using electrodynamics tools, we investigated the effect of surface plasmons on the propagation direction of electromagnetic waves around a spherical silver nanoparticle and nano-structured silver film. The studies showed that the calculated effective index of refraction of a spherical silver nanoparticle from the Kramers-Kronig transformation method may not represent the index of refraction of the system but is consistent with the Poynting vector (the energy flow) direction at the microscopic scale. Using a silver film composed of periodic triangular prisms, we numerically demonstrated that electromagnetic waves may propagate along different directions depending on the incident polarization direction. When the incident polarization is in the plane of incidence and the surface plasmons are excited, the refracted light ray propagates along the same side of the surface normal as the incident wave. When the incident polarization is perpendicular to the plane of incidence, the refracted light ray always propagates on the opposite side of the surface normal. The results show that a silver film composed of periodic nano-sized triangular prisms may be used as a filter to simultaneously generate two polarized light rays of orthogonal polarizations from one light source.