Letter abstract
Nature Photonics 1, 573 - 576 (2007)
Published online: 23 September 2007 | doi:10.1038/nphoton.2007.174
Subject Category: Plasmonics
Slow guided surface plasmons at telecom frequencies
Abstract
The phenomenon of slow light is interesting not only from a fundamental physics standpoint, but also because it introduces the possibility of new applications in telecommunications1. For a practical slow-light device, the important features are bandwidth, range of wavelength tunability and size, rather than the absolute slowdown factor achieved2. Slow light can be achieved in three main ways: through quantum interference effects3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, which can slow the speed of light down to several metres per second, albeit within a very narrow bandwidth; by using photonic crystals9, which are able to slow light over large bandwidths but with much smaller slowdown factors10, 11; and by using stimulated Brillouin or Raman scattering12, 13. Surface plasmon polaritons have the advantage that they can overcome the diffraction limit of light in a microchip-sized device14, 15, 16, 17. Increases in the propagation lengths of surface plasmon polaritons18 and the feasibility of all-optical wavelength tunability19 have been reported. Here we report the observation of slow, femtosecond surface-plasmon-polariton wavepackets. We show that a highly compact (55 
m length) plasmonic structure is able to achieve an effective slowdown factor of two over a 4 THz bandwidth. These results will increase the scope of photonic devices based on surface plasmon polaritons.
- FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMOLF), Kruislaan 407, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Correspondence to: L. Kuipers1 e-mail: L.Kuipers@amolf.nl
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