Vacuum Rabi splitting for surface plasmon polaritons and Rhodamine 6G molecules

We report on strong coupling between surface-plasmon polaritons and Rhodamine 6G molecules at room temperature. As a reference to compare with, we first determine the dispersion curve of (uncoupled) surface plasmon polaritons on a 50 nm thick film of silver. Consequently, we determine the dispersion curve of surface plasmon polaritons strongly coupled to Rhodamine 6G molecules, which exhibits vacuum Rabi splitting. Depending on the Rhodamine 6G concentration, we find splitting energies between 0.05 eV and 0.13 eV.

[1]  Glenn P. Goodrich,et al.  Plasmonic enhancement of molecular fluorescence. , 2007, Nano letters.

[2]  H. Raether.  Surface Plasmons on Smooth and Rough Surfaces and on Gratings , 1988 .

[3]  J. Mugnier,et al.  Strong coupling between surface plasmons and excitons in an organic semiconductor. , 2004, Physical review letters.

[4]  A. Brillante,et al.  Exciton–surface plasmon coupling: An experimental investigation , 1982 .

[5]  Jason Riordon,et al.  Enhanced fluorescence from arrays of nanoholes in a gold film. , 2005, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[6]  William L. Barnes,et al.  Modification of the spontaneous emission rate of Eu 3+ ions close to a thin metal mirror , 1997 .

[7]  R. W. Christy,et al.  Optical Constants of the Noble Metals , 1972 .

[8]  Stephan W Koch,et al.  Vacuum Rabi splitting in semiconductors , 2006 .

[9]  W. Barnes,et al.  Energy Transfer Across a Metal Film Mediated by Surface Plasmon Polaritons , 2004, Science.

[10]  William L. Barnes,et al.  Strong coupling between surface plasmon-polaritons and organic molecules in subwavelength hole arrays , 2005 .

[11]  P. Mulvaney,et al.  Surface plasmon mediated strong exciton-photon coupling in semiconductor nanocrystals. , 2009, Nano letters.

[12]  C. Weisbuch,et al.  Observation of the coupled exciton-photon mode splitting in a semiconductor quantum microcavity. , 1992, Physical review letters.

[13]  M. Pettersson,et al.  Vacuum Rabi splitting and strong-coupling dynamics for surface-plasmon polaritons and rhodamine 6G molecules. , 2009, Physical review letters.

[14]  M. S. Skolnick,et al.  Strong exciton–photon coupling in an organic semiconductor microcavity , 1998, Nature.

[15]  V. Lucarini.  Kramers-Kronig relations in optical materials research , 2005 .

[16]  Vahid Sandoghdar,et al.  Enhancement of single-molecule fluorescence using a gold nanoparticle as an optical nanoantenna. , 2006, Physical review letters.

[17]  M. Reva,et al.  Effect of intermolecular interactions on the electronic spectra of rhodamine 6G , 1977 .

[18]  P. Mulvaney,et al.  Coherent superposition of exciton states in quantum dots induced by surface plasmons , 2010 .