Open AccessDetection of partial polarization of light beams with dipolar nanocubes
Author(s) -
Lasse-Petteri Leppänen,
Kimmo Saastamoinen,
Joonas Lehtolahti,
Ari T. Friberg,
Tero Setälä
Publication year - 2016
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.24.001472
Subject(s) - polarization (electrochemistry) , optics , nanoprobe , materials science , detector , radial polarization , physics , laser beams , laser , laser beam quality , chemistry , fluorescence
We confirm experimentally that the degree and state of polarization of a random, partially polarized electromagnetic beam can be obtained by probing the field with a nanoscatterer. We use a gold nanocube on silicon substrate as a local scatterer and detect the polarization characteristics of the scattered far field, which enables us to deduce the state of partial polarization of the field at the nanoprobe site. In contrast to previous beam characterization methods where spatial resolution is limited by the pixel size of the detector, the accuracy of the current technique is specified by the particle size. Our work is the first step towards polarization-state detection of random optical near fields for which the use of nanoprobes is required.