Surface plasmon polariton waveguiding in random surface nanostructures

In this study, guiding of surface plasmon polaritons excited at a gold film surface along corrugation-free channels in regions that are covered with randomly located surface scatterers, is considered using near-field microscopy for imaging of surface plasmon polariton intensity distributions at the surface. In the wavelength range 713-815 nm, we observed complete inhibition of the surface plasmon polariton propagation inside the random structures composed of individual (approx. 70 nm high) gold bumps (and their clusters) placed on a 55 nm thick gold film with a bump density of 75 micro-m-2. We demonstrate well-defined surface plasmon polariton guiding along corrugation-free 2 micro-m wide channels in random structures and, in the wavelength range 738-774 nm, low-loss guiding around 20degrees bends having a bend radius of approx. 15 micro-m.