Excitation of surface plasmons from silver nanowires embedded in polymer nanofibers.

We report an excitation of surface plasmons in silver nanowires (AgNWs) which were embedded in flexible polymer nanofibers. Using waveguiding excitation, surface plasmons in AgNWs were excited and propagated. By directing light of 650, 532, and 473 nm wavelengths into the nanofiber, surface plasmons in an embedded single AgNW (average diameter 400 nm, length 4.3 μm) were excited and the corresponding propagation lengths for the three wavelengths are 10.6, 7.7, and 5.1 μm. It was also found that, when a spatially incoherent white light of a halogen lamp with an excitation optical power of 80 μW was coupled into the polymer nanofiber, a surface plasmon mediated interference fringe was observed. In addition, on the basis of surface plasmon excitation, two adjacent AgNWs embedded in the polymer nanofibers were demonstrated to serve as coupled plasmonic waveguides.