Generation of surface plasmons by electron beam excitation

Abstract

We report on the first demonstration of excitation of propagating surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) by injection of a beam of free electrons on an unstructured metal interface, providing a highly localized and intense source of plasmon waves. The plasmons were detected by a grating-assisted decoupling into light at a set of distances from the excitation point. This technique allows the high-resolution mapping of plasmon and photon emission from metal nanostructures