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Direct optical measurement of light coupling into planar waveguide by plasmonic nanoparticles

Antti M. Pennanen and J. Jussi Toppari

Open Access Open Access

Abstract

Coupling of light into a thin layer of high refractive index material by plasmonic nanoparticles has been widely studied for application in photovoltaic devices, such as thin-film solar cells. In numerous studies this coupling has been investigated through measurement of e.g. quantum efficiency or photocurrent enhancement. Here we present a direct optical measurement of light coupling into a waveguide by plasmonic nanoparticles. We investigate the coupling efficiency into the guided modes within the waveguide by illuminating the surface of a sample, consisting of a glass slide coated with a high refractive index planar waveguide and plasmonic nanoparticles, while directly measuring the intensity of the light emitted out of the waveguide edge. These experiments were complemented by transmittance and reflectance measurements. We show that the light coupling is strongly affected by thin-film interference, localized surface plasmon resonances of the nanoparticles and the illumination direction (front or rear).

© 2012 Optical Society of America

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Figures (7)
Fig. 1
Fig. 1 (a) Illustration of the optical measurement geometry in the front illumination configuration. (b) SEM image of the 42 nm × 200 nm (height × diameter) Au nanodisks on a TiO2-coated glass slide. (c) Measurement of total transmittance (T), reflectance (R) and transflectance (TR) with an integrating sphere. All transmitted/reflected light entering the integrating sphere is eventually collected into the detector, situated at the bottom of the sphere.

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Fig. 2
Fig. 2 (a) Transmittances of TiO2 films without Au nanodisks and (b) transmission spectra of samples with nanoparticles on plain glass and on 900, 450 and 100 nm TiO2. Bands around lines show the maximum error limits of measurements

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Fig. 3
Fig. 3 Emission spectra, i.e. intensity of light emitted out of the waveguide edge in front (solid orange line) and rear (dashed green line) illumination configurations, of samples with Au nanodisks on (a) plain glass and (b) 900, (c) 450 and (d) 100 nm TiO2. Dotted lines: Transmittance of the Au particles on glass is shown for reference in (a) and transmittance of the TiO2 films without the nanoparticles in (b–d), to illustrate the correspondence between thin-film interference and coupling efficiency. Bands around lines show the 95 % confidence bands (inner bands) and maximum errors (outer bands) of measurements. If only one band is visible, it is the maximum error band. Vertical bands show locations of the resonant LSP modes.

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Fig. 4
Fig. 4 Effect of spacer layer on the coupling efficiency. Samples with 900 nm TiO2 waveguide and Au nanodisks with (dashed green lines) and without (solid orange lines) the spacer layer. (a) Transmittances. (b) Transmittances without the nanodisks. (c,d) Emission spectra under front and rear illumination, respectively. Bands around lines show the 95 % confidence bands (inner bands) and maximum errors (outer bands) of measurements. If only one band is visible, it is the maximum error band. Vertical bands show the locations of the shorter wavelength LSP resonances.

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Fig. 5
Fig. 5 Sample with 900 nm TiO2 and Au nanodisks. Upper part: total transmittance (dotted blue line) and beam transmittance with maximum error limits (band around dotted line). Lower part: Total reflectance for front (solid orange line) and rear illumination (dashed green line) and for sample without Au nanodisks (dotted red line). Inset: total reflectance of Au nanodisks on plain glass.

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Fig. 6
Fig. 6 (a) Absorption of sample with 900 nm TiO2 and Au nanodisks. Solid lines: absorptance from the separate total transmittance and reflectance measurements; dashed lines: absorptance from the transflectance measurements. (b) Emission spectrum of same sample, same as in Fig. 3(b).

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Fig. 7
Fig. 7 Transmission and reflection illustrated with (a) front and (b) rear illumination. Reflectance is decreased when the sample is illuminated from the rear, whereas transmittance remains unchanged.

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