# Measuring the Mode Volume of Plasmonic Nanocavities Using Coupled Optical Emitters

 Title: Measuring the Mode Volume of Plasmonic Nanocavities Using Coupled Optical Emitters Author: Hu, Evelyn; Russell, Kasey Joe; Yeung, Yan Mui Kitty Note: Order does not necessarily reflect citation order of authors. Citation: Russell, Kasey Joe, Yan Mui Kitty Yeung, and Evelyn Hu. 2012. Measuring the mode volume of plasmonic nanocavities using coupled optical emitters. Physical Review B 85(24): 245445. Full Text & Related Files: Hu_Measuring.pdf (666.3Kb; PDF) Abstract: Metallic optical systems can conﬁne light to deep subwavelength dimensions, but verifying the level of conﬁnement at these length scales typically requires specialized techniques and equipment for probing the near ﬁeld of the structure. We experimentally measured the conﬁnement of a metal-based optical cavity by using the cavity modes themselves as a sensitive probe of the cavity characteristics. By perturbing the cavity modes with conformal dielectric layers of subnanometer thickness using atomic layer deposition, we ﬁnd the exponential decay length of the modes to be less than 5% of the free-space wavelength $$(\lambda)$$ and the mode volume to be of order $$\lambda^3/1000$$. These results provide experimental conﬁrmation of the deep subwavelength conﬁnement capabilities of metal-based optical cavities. Published Version: doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.85.245445 Other Sources: http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.1112 Terms of Use: This article is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of-use#LAA Citable link to this page: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:10482554 Downloads of this work: