Magnetic field concentrator for probing optical magnetic metamaterials

Plasmonic metasurface cavity for simultaneous enhancement of optical electric and magnetic fields in deep subwavelength volume

It has been hard to achieve simultaneous plasmonic enhancement of nanoscale light-matter interactions in terms of both electric and magnetic manners with easily reproducible fabrication method and systematic theoretical design rule. In this paper, a novel concept of a flat nanofocusing device is proposed for simultaneously squeezing both electric and magnetic fields in deep-subwavelength volume (~λ³/538) in a large area. Based on the funneled unit cell structures and surface plasmon-assisted coherent interactions between them, the array of rectangular nanocavity connected to a tapered nanoantenna, plasmonic metasurface cavity, is constructed by periodic arrangement of the unit cell. The average enhancement factors of electric and magnetic field intensities reach about 60 and 22 in nanocavities, respectively. The proposed outstanding performance of the device is verified numerically and experimentally. We expect that this work would expand methodologies involving optical near-field manipulations in large areas and related potential applications including nanophotonic sensors, nonlinear responses, and quantum interactions.

Generation and subwavelength focusing of longitudinal magnetic fields in a metallized fiber tip

We demonstrate experimentally and numerically that in fiber tips as they are used in NSOMs azimuthally polarized electrical fields (|E(azi)|2 / |E(tot)|2 ≈55% ± 5% for λ0 = 1550 nm), respectively subwavelength confined (FWHM ≈450 nm ≈λ0/3.5) magnetic fields, are generated for a certain tip aperture diameter (d = 1.4 μm). We attribute the generation of this field distribution in metal-coated fiber tips to symmetry breaking in the bend and subsequent plasmonic mode filtering in the truncated conical taper.

Transmission bleaching and coupling crossover in a split tapered aperture

We investigate the spectral transmission properties of conically tapered metallic apertures made in a split metallic plate using terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy. The introduction of even a small gap between the two halves of the plate results in spectral broadening of the transmitted radiation due to a reduction of the cut-off effect. We find that the resulting transmission spectrum can be described as a weighted sum of the spectra associated with a tapered aperture and a parallel plate waveguide, with the gap spacing controlling the relative ratio. We further find that the field concentration properties of the aperture in a split plate are limited by the radiation leakage through the gap and propose a tapered shell structure to realize strong broadband field concentration. Using numerical simulations, we validate these observations and yield insight into the mode properties within the split tapered aperture.

Fabrication of corrugated Ge-doped silica fibers

We present a method of fabricating Ge-doped SiO2 fibers with corrugations around their full circumference for a desired length in the longitudinal direction. The procedure comprises three steps: hydrogenation of Ge-doped SiO2 fibers to increase photosensitivity, recording of Bragg gratings with ultraviolet light to achieve modulation of refractive index, and chemical etching. Finite-length, radially corrugated fibers may be used as couplers. Corrugated tapered fibers are used as high energy throughput probes in scanning near-field optical microscopy.

Superfocusing of electric or magnetic fields using conical metal tips: effect of mode symmetry on the plasmon excitation method

We compare single- and double-sided excitation methods of adiabatic surface plasmon polariton (SPP) wave superfocusing for scattering-type metallic near-field scanning optical microscopy (s-NSOM). Using the results of full 3D finite difference time domain analyses, the differences in field enhancement factors are explained and reveal the mode selectivity of a conical NSOM tip for adiabatic SPP superfocusing. Exploiting the mode-symmetric nature of the tip further, we also show that it is possible to selectively confine either the electric or magnetic field at the NSOM tip apex, by simply adjusting the relative phase between the SPP waves in the double-sided excitation approach.