Omnidirectional absorption enhancement in hybrid waveguide-plasmon system

We investigate the omnidirectional absorption enhancement induced by the excitation of the localized surface plasmon in the hybrid system consisting of a gold nanowire array embedded in a slab waveguide. Assisted by the waveguide layer, the hybrid system can support the localized waveguide-plasmon resonances for a wide range of incident angles. Theoretical and experimental results are both presented to demonstrate the omnidirectional absorption enhancement which could find important applications on plasmonic-assisted photovoltaic devices or photodetectors. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3603934]