Generation of pronounced Fano resonances and tuning of subwavelength spatial light distribution in plasmonic pentamers

Arrays of plasmonic pentamers consisting of five metallic nanodisks were designed and fabricated to achieve a pronounced Fano Resonance with polarization-independent far-field spectral response at normal incidence due to the structure symmetry of pentamers. A mass-spring coupled oscillator model was applied to study plasmon interactions among the nano-disks. It was found that the direction of the excitation light polarization can flexibly tune the spatial localization of near-field energy at sub-wavelength scales while the collective optical properties are kept constant. It can lead to a selective storage of excited energy down to sub-20 nm gap at a normal incident with a single light source. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America