Surface plasmon-polaritons in periodic arrays of V-grooves strongly coupled to quantum emitters

We investigate the optical response of a system consisting of periodic silver V-grooves interacting with quantum emitters. Two surface plasmon-polariton resonances are identified in the reflection spectrum of bare silver grooves, with the intensity of one resonance being localized near the bottom of the groove and that of the other resonance being distributed throughout the entire groove. The linear response of the hybrid silver-emitter system is thoroughly analyzed by considering the coupling between surface plasmon polaritons and emitters as the geometry of the grooves and the spatial distribution of emitters within the grooves are varied. The nonlinear response of the system is also considered by pumping the emitters with a short, high-intensity pulse. By changing the duration or the intensity of the pump, the population of emitters in the ground state at the end of the pump is varied, and it is found (upon probing with a short pulse) that an increase in the fraction of emitters in the ground state corresponds to an increase in Rabi splitting. Spatial variations in the ground state population throughout the emitter region are shown to be a result of field retardation.