Accessing Plasmonic Hotspots using Nanoparticle-on-Foil Constructs
Rohit Chikkaraddy, Jeremy J Baumberg
Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) nanogaps in canonical nanoparticle-on-mirror
geometry (NPoM) provide deep-subwavelength confinement of light with mode
volumes smaller than $V/V_0$ $<$ $10^{-6}$. However, access to these hotspots
is limited by the impendence mismatch between the high in-plane $k_{//}$ of
trapped light and free-space plane-waves, making the in- and out-coupling of
light difficult. Here, by constructing a nanoparticle-on-foil (NPoF) system
with thin metal films, we show the mixing of insulator-metal-insulator (IMI)
modes and MIM gap modes resulting in MIMI modes. This mixing provides
multi-channel access to the plasmonic nanocavity through light incident from
both sides of the metal film. The red-tuning and near-field strength of MIMI
modes for thinner foils is measured experimentally with white-light scattering
and surface-enhanced Raman scattering from individual NPoFs. We discuss further
the utility of NPoF systems since the geometry allows tightly confined light to
be accessed simply and through different ports.