| Surface plasmon polaritons (SPP's) are collective oscillations of electrons sustained at a metal dielectric interface. These oscillations confine electromagnetic fields naturally to two dimensions. In this thesis I explore SPP's in one and two dimensions. Propagation shows interesting behavior including the redirection and inter-coupling between one dimensional plasmon modes. In addition, I explore novel far-field detection schemes and localized launching mechanisms. These techniques are coupled with excitation polarization to investigate the scattering mechanisms in 1-d plasmon waveguides. Finally, the luminescent blinking of silver nanowires is presented and discussed in a statistical manner. |
