Focusing, waveguiding and resonance enhancement characteristics of surface plasmon polaritons

Plasmonics has become a new research hot spot in recent years.The collective oscillation of electrons at the dielectric and metal interface is a kind of electromagnetic excitation known as a surface plasmon polariton (SPP). Because of their specific coupling and propagation properties, the design and application of SPP-based devices have become a foremost direction in nano-optics research. In this article we report our investigations on the fabrication of SPP nanostructures, and the characterization of the SPP focusing, waveguide and resonance enhancement properties by means of near-field optics.