Open AccessMetallic nanowires can lead to wavelength-scale microlenses and microlens arrays
Author(s) -
Soraya Zaiba,
Timothé Kouriba,
Omar Ziane,
Olivier Stéphan,
Jocelyne Bosson,
G. Vitrant,
Patrice L. Baldeck
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.20.015516
Subject(s) - microlens , optics , materials science , nanowire , diffraction , ptychography , plasmon , fresnel diffraction , transmittance , surface plasmon , wavelength , aperture (computer memory) , optoelectronics , diffraction efficiency , nanophotonics , extraordinary optical transmission , surface plasmon polariton , lens (geology) , physics , acoustics
We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate that the diffraction of microstructures based on silver nanowires leads to very efficient microfocusing effects. Pairs of parallel nanowires act as ultrasmall cylindrical microlenses with diffraction-limited resolution in the Fresnel region. This is a new diffraction scheme to make micron-sized optical lenses with higher transmittance than plasmonic microlens based on nano-aperture arrays. Calculations based on the scalar Rayleigh-Sommerfeld integral highlights the pure scalar diffractive contribution. Thus, the plasmon contribution is negligible in such micron-sized metallic geometry. We demonstrate that two-dimensional grids of nanowires can be used to fabricate dense arrays of microlenses, i.e. 10000x10000 DPI (dots per inch).