Surface plasmon polariton modes in a single-crystal Au nanoresonator fabricated using focused-ion-beam milling

We use focused-ion-beam milling of a single-crystal Au surface to fabricate a 590-nm-long linear ridge that acts as a surface plasmon nanoresonator. Cathodoluminescence imaging spectroscopy is then used to excite and image surface plasmons on the ridge. Principal component analysis reveals distinct plasmonic modes, which proves confinement of surface plasmon oscillations to the ridge. Boundary-element-method calculations confirm that a linear ridge is able to support highly localized surface plasmon modes (mode diameter <100 nm). The results demonstrate that focused-ion-beam milling can be used in rapid prototyping of nanoscale single-crystal plasmonic components. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.