Compressing surface plasmons for nano-scale optical focusing

A major challenge in optics is how to deliver and concentrate light from the micron-scale into the nano-scale. Light can not be guided, by conventional mechanisms, with optical beam sizes significantly smaller than its wavelength due to the diffraction limit. On the other hand, focusing of light int...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optics express 2009-04, Vol.17 (9), p.7519-7524
Main Authors: Choi, Hyeunseok, Pile, David F, Nam, Sunghyun, Bartal, Guy, Zhang, Xiang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Computer-Aided Design
Equipment Design
Equipment Failure Analysis
Lenses
Light
Nanostructures - chemistry
Nanostructures - ultrastructure
Nanotechnology - instrumentation
Nanotechnology - methods
Reproducibility of Results
Scattering, Radiation
Sensitivity and Specificity
Surface Plasmon Resonance - instrumentation
Surface Plasmon Resonance - methods
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Summary:A major challenge in optics is how to deliver and concentrate light from the micron-scale into the nano-scale. Light can not be guided, by conventional mechanisms, with optical beam sizes significantly smaller than its wavelength due to the diffraction limit. On the other hand, focusing of light into very small volumes beyond the diffraction limit can be achieved by exploiting the wavelength scalability of surface plasmon polaritons. By slowing down an optical wave and shrinking its wavelength during its propagation, optical energy can be compressed and concentrated down to nanometer scale, namely, nanofocusing. Here, we experimentally demonstrate and quantitatively measure the nanofocusing of surface plasmon polaritons in tapered metallic V-grooves down to the deep subwavelength scale - approximately lambda/40 at wavelength of 1.5 micron - with almost 50% power efficiency.
ISSN:1094-4087
1094-4087
DOI:10.1364/OE.17.007519