Excitation of surface plasmons in metallic thin films using nanoparticle arrays

In this paper, a device for coupling light into symmetric and asymmetric surface plasmon modes in a metallic thin film is presented. This device consists of a two-dimensional periodic array of nanoparticles located above a silver thin film that supports surface plasmons. The nanoparticles and the metallic thin film are embedded in silica. By exciting local surface plasmons in these nanoparticles, light is coupled into the metallic thin film. The coupling process is simulated using finite integration technique. The effects of size of nanoparticles, their distance from the metallic film and the thickness of the metallic film on the coupling are investigated.