Multiple plasmonic-photonic couplings in the Au nanobeaker arrays: enhanced robustness and wavelength tunability

Diffractive coupling in the plasmonic nanoparticle arrays introduces the collective plasmon resonances with high scattering efficiency and narrow linewidth. However, the collective plasmon resonances can be suppressed when the arrays are supported on the solid-state substrates with different superstrates because of the different dispersion relations between the substrate and the superstrate. Herein, we develop a general concept which seeks to synergize the subnanoparticle engineering of hot spots with the far-field coupling behavior, for the versatile control of plasmonic-photonic couplings in an asymmetric environment. To demonstrate our concept, we choose as an example the Au nanobeaker arrays (NBAs), which are the conformally coated Au thin layers on the interior sidewalls and bottoms of nanohole arrays in SiO2 substrates. Using the finite-difference time-domain simulations, we show that engineering the plasmonic hot spots in the NBAs by simply controlling the depth-to-diameter aspect ratio of individual units enables multiple plasmonic-photonic couplings in an asymmetric environment. These couplings are robust with a wide range of resonance wavelengths from visible to infrared. Furthermore, the angle-dependent transmission spectra of the arrays reveal a transition from band-edge to propagating state for the orthogonal coupling and a splitting of diffraction waves in the parallel coupling. The proposed NBAs will find enhanced applications in plasmonic lasers and biosensing. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America