Tailoring optical discs for surface plasmon polaritons generation

The article reports on an optimization of gold submicron structures based on modified recordable blank digital versatile discs for surface plasmon polaritions excitation, mainly in near-infrared region. We have examined internal layers of commercially available DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW and DVD-RW optical discs and we have elaborated a simple, inexpensive approach providing sharp resonances with efficiency reaching 95% for collimated excitation laser beams. We have experimentally and numerically confirmed the SPPs intensity being up to 220 times the intensity of the excitation laser beam. We have also directly measured thermal energy loss accompanying SPPs excitation.