Full Photonic Band Gap for Surface Modes in the Visible

Abstract

We report the first observation of a full photonic band gap for surface modes. An experimental study has been made of the propagation of surface plasmon polaritons on a silver surface that is textured with a hexagonal array of dots with a periodicity of 300 nm. We find that propagation is prohibited in all directions for modes with energies between 1.91 and 2.00 eV.