Surface plasmon-coupled emission on plasmonic Bragg gratings

Surface plasmon-coupled emission (SPCE) from emitters in a close proximity to a plasmonic Bragg grating is investigated. In this study, the directional fluorescence emission mediated by Bragg-scattered surface plasmons and surface plasmons diffraction cross-coupled through a thin metallic film is observed by using the reverse Kretschmann configuration. We show that controlling of dispersion relation of these surface plasmon modes by tuning the refractive index at upper and lower interfaces of a dense sub-wavelength metallic grating enables selective reducing or increasing the intensity of the light emitted to certain directions. These observations may provide important leads for design of advanced plasmonic structures in applications areas of plasmon-enhanced fluorescence spectroscopy and nanoscale optical sources. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America