Plasmonic nanowires arranged in Fibonacci number chain: Excitation angle-dependent optical properties

Abstract

Herein we numerically study the excitation angle-dependant far-field and near-field optical properties of vertical plasmonic nanowires arranged in an unconventional linear geometry: Fibonacci number chain. The first five numbers in the Fibonacci series (1, 1, 2, 3, 5) were mapped to the size of gold nanowires, and arranged in a linear chain to study their optical interactions, and compared them to conventional chain of vertical gold nanowires. By harnessing the radiative and evanescent coupling regimes in the geometry, we found a systematic variation in the far-field extinction and near-field confinement in the geometries. Our simulation studies revealed enhanced backscattered intensity in the far-field radiation pattern at excitation angles along the chain-length of Fibonacci geometry, which was otherwise absent for conventional chain of plasmonic nanowires. Such angular reconfiguration of optical fields in unconventional linear geometries can be harnessed for tunable on-chip plasmonics.