Enhanced and tunable electric dipole-dipole interactions near a planar metal film

Abstract: We investigate the enhanced electric dipole-dipole interaction by surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) supported by the planar metal film waveguide. By taking two nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center electric-dipoles in diamond as an example, both the coupling strength and collective relaxation of two dipoles are studied with numerical Green Function method. Compared to the two-dipole coupling on planar surface, metal film provides stronger and tunable coupling coefficients. Enhancement of the interaction between coupled NV center dipoles could have applications in both quantum information and energy transfer investigation. Our investigation provides a systematical result for experimental applications based on dipole-dipole interaction mediated with SPPs on planar metal film.