  Based on the coupled-dipole analysis and finite-difference time-domain
simulation, we have investigated the surface plasmon propagation in
one-dimensional metallic nanoparticle (NP) chains. Our systematic studies
reveal that the interplay between the localized plasmon excitation and the
lattice collective behavior leads to two phases (I and II) of different
electromagnetic (EM) field transport properties. In phase I, the EM field
decays follow the power-law. In phase II, the EM field shows the exponential
decay in the short distance regime and the power-law decay in the long distance
regime. Moreover, universal power-law exponents have been found in the long
propagation distance. The two different EM field propagation behaviors can be
transformed to each other by tuning the parameters of the excitation fields
and/or those of the NP chains. The EM field transport mechanisms we have found
are very useful in the design of plasmonic waveguide with both strong field
confinement and efficient field/energy transfer, which has important
applications in integrated nanophotonic circuits.
