Coherence lattices in surface plasmon polariton fields

We explore electromagnetic coherence lattices in planar polychromatic surface plasmon polariton (SPP) fields. When the SPP constituents are uncorrelated-and thus do not interfere-coherence lattices arise from statistical similarity of the random SPP electromagnetic field. As the SPP correlations become stronger, the coherence lattices fade away, but the lattice structure reemerges in the spectral density of the field. The polarization states of the structured SPP lattice fields are also investigated. Controllable plasmonic coherence and spectral density lattices can find applications in nanophotonics, such as nanoparticle manipulation. (C) 2018 Optical Society of Americ