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Plasmonic nanostructures in aperture‐less scanning near‐field optical microscopy (aSNOM)
Author(s) -
Vogelgesang Ralf,
Dorfmüller Jens,
Esteban Ruben,
Weitz R. Thomas,
Dmitriev Alexandre,
Kern Klaus
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
physica status solidi (b)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1521-3951
pISSN - 0370-1972
DOI - 10.1002/pssb.200879617
Subject(s) - plasmon , polarization (electrochemistry) , near field scanning optical microscope , excitation , optics , near and far field , microscopy , nanostructure , materials science , scattering , aperture (computer memory) , optical microscope , physics , optoelectronics , nanotechnology , chemistry , scanning electron microscope , acoustics , quantum mechanics
Apertureless scanning near‐field optical microscopy offers superb spatial resolution, but interpreting the recorded signal can still be a challenge. Especially images of eigenmodes in plasmonic nanostructures are very often obscured by concurrent scattering from the tip and/or coupling effects in the tip‐sample system. We show here how the use of orthogonal polarizations in excitation and detection affords us with an elegant method to map near‐fields of plasmonic eigenmodes and other optical phenomena. We demonstrate with a variety of samples possible applications of this cross‐polarization scheme, such as verification of functional nanooptical structures, systematic studies of localized and propagating plasmonic eigenmodes, and their susceptibility to disturbance from structural defects. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)