Spectral properties of plasmonic resonator antennas

A theoretical study of the optical properties of metallic nano-strip antennas is presented. Such strips exhibit retardation-based resonances resulting from the constructive interference of counter propagating short-range surface plasmon-polaritons (SR-SPPs) that reflect from the antenna terminations. A Fabry-Perot model was formulated that successfully predicts both the peak position and spectral shape of their optical resonances. This model requires knowledge of the SR-SPP reflection amplitude and phase pickup upon reflection from the structure terminations. These quantities were first estimated using an intuitive Fresnel reflection model and then calculated exactly using full-field simulations based on the finite-difference frequency-domain (FDFD) method. With only three dimensionless scaling parameters, the Fabry-Perot model provides simple design rules for engineering resonant properties of such plasmonic resonator antennas. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America