Plasmon Bragg reflectors and nanocavities on flat metallic surfaces

Metal heterostructures constructed surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) Bragg reflectors and nanocavities on flat metallic surfaces are proposed and demonstrated numerically. A metal heterowaveguide structured by alternately stacking two kinds of metal gap waveguides (MGWs) shows periodically effective refraction index modulation to SPPs and produces SPP propagation on flat metallic surfaces a band gap in certain frequencies, known as plasmonic band gap, in which SPP propagation is forbidden. Changing the width of one MGW in the heterowaveguide, a SPP nanocavity with high quality factor can be created. Our results imply a broad possibility of constructed SPP-based Bragg reflectors, emitter, and filters, etc., on flat metallic surfaces for planar nanometeric photonic networks. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.