Ultra hybrid plasmonics: strong coupling of plexcitons with plasmon polaritons

We report a ternary-coupled plasmonic system consisting of excitons of J-aggregated dye, localized surface plasmon polaritons of Ag nanoparticles, and propagating surface plasmon polaritons of continuous Ag film. J-aggregate dyes are uniformly self-assembled on colloidally synthesized Ag nanoprisms forming plexcitonic nanoparticles, which are placed at a distance nanometers away from the Ag thin film. The reflection measurements, corroborated by theoretical predictions, reveal that the strong coupling of plasmon polaritons and plexcitons results in a newly formed plasmon-exciton-plasmon hybridized state that we call here, reportedly for the first time, a plexcimon state. The hybrid plasmonic system shows dispersion characteristics similar to a coupled resonator optical waveguide. The group velocity of the plexcimon state approaches zero at the band edges. The ultrahybrid plasmonic system presented here is promising for a variety of light-matter interaction studies, including polariton lasers, plasmonic devices, plasmonic waveguiding, and spectroscopy. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America