Open AccessNanoscale optical field localization by resonantly focused plasmons
Author(s) -
Lishuang Feng,
Derek Van Orden,
Maxim Abashin,
Qianjin Wang,
Yanfeng Chen,
Vitaliy Lomakin,
Yeshaiahu Fainman
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.17.004824
Subject(s) - near field scanning optical microscope , plasmon , optics , nanophotonics , materials science , surface plasmon , waveguide , optoelectronics , near field optics , nanostructure , surface plasmon polariton , near and far field , optical microscope , physics , scanning electron microscope , nanotechnology
We experimentally demonstrate use of plasmonic resonant phenomena combined with strong field localization to enhance efficiency of confining optical fields in a Si waveguide. Our approach utilizes a plasmonic resonant nano-focusing-antenna (RNFA), that simultaneously supports several focusing mechanisms in a single nanostructure, integrated with a lossless Si waveguide utilized with silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology, to achieve a sub-diffraction limited focusing with a nanoscale (deeply subwavelength) spot size. The metallic RNFA effectively converts an incoming propagating waveguide mode to a localized resonant plasmon mode in an ultrasmall volume in all 3 dimensions. The near-field optical measurements of the fabricated RNFA using heterodyne near-field scanning optical microscope (H-NSOM) validate the theoretical predictions showing strong optical field localization.