Electric-Field Induced Shift in the Plasmon Resonance Due to the Interfacial Pockels Effect of Water on a Silver Surface

In the research on application of an optical modulator used for information communication, materials having a large Pockels effect, a refractive index change proportional to the electric-field, are required. It is known that the interfacial water on the surface of transparent oxide electrodes has a giant Pockels coefficient, which is an order of magnitude larger than the solid Pockels crystals practically used. It is important to know the Pockels coefficient of water on not only an oxide surface, but also a metal surface to understand the mechanism of the interfacial Pockels effect of water. However, a method has not yet been established for evaluating the coefficient of water-metal interface. Here we present an evaluation method of the Pockels coefficient of interfacial water on a metal (silver) surface from the spectral shift of the surface plasmon polariton resonance due to electric-field induced refractive index change of the interfacial water. The Pockels coefficient of interfacial water on Ag was evaluated as |r33|=5 +/- 1 pm/V, without need for exact knowledge of the thickness of the interfacial layer (electric double layer of water) as long as the penetration depth of the plasmon is larger than the thickness.

Automated summary

This study presents a method to evaluate the Pockels coefficient of interfacial water on a metal surface, specifically silver, using the spectral shift of the surface plasmon polariton resonance. The evaluation resulted in a Pockels coefficient of |r33|=5 +/- 1 pm/V for interfacial water on silver.