Polarization-dependent strong coupling between surface plasmon polaritons and excitons in an organic-dye-doped nanostructure

Kun Zhang, Tian-Yong Chen, Wen-Bo Shi, Cheng-Yao Li, Ren-Hao Fan, Qian-Jin Wang, Ru-Wen Peng, and Mu Wang

Index: 10.1364/OL.42.002834

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Abstract

In this work, we demonstrate polarization-dependent strong coupling between surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) and excitons in the J-aggregates-attached aperture array. It is shown that the excitons strongly couple with the polarization-dependent SPPs, and Rabi splittings are consequently observed. As a result, the polarization-dependent polariton bands are generated in the system. Increasing the incident angle, the polaritons disperse to higher energies under transverse-electric illumination, while the polaritons disperse to lower energies under transverse-magnetic illumination. Therefore, at different polarization incidence, we experimentally achieve distinct polaritons with opposite dispersion directions. In this way, tuning the polarization of the incident light, we can excite different polaritons whose energy propagates to different directions. Furthermore, by retrieving the mixing fractions of the components in these polariton bands, we find that the dispersion properties of the polaritons are inherited from both the SPPs and the excitons. Our investigation may inspire related studies on tunable photon–exciton interactions and achieve some potential applications on active polariton devices.