Modeling of near-field optical diffraction from a subwavelength aperture in a thin conducting film

Novel optical super-resolution pattern with upright edges diffracted by a tiny thin aperture

In the past decade numerous efforts have been concentrated to achieve optical imaging resolution beyond the diffraction limit. In this letter a thin microcavity theory of near-field optics is proposed by using the power flow theorem firstly. According to this theory, the near-field optical diffraction from a tiny aperture whose diameter is less than one-tenth incident wavelength embedded in a thin conducting film is investigated by considering this tiny aperture as a thin nanocavity. It is very surprising that there exists a kind of novel super-resolution diffraction patterns showing resolution better than λ/80 (λ is the incident wavelength), which is revealed for the first time to our knowledge in this letter. The mechanism that has allowed the imaging with this kind of super-resolution patterns is due to the interaction between the incident wave and the thin nanocavity with a complex wavenumber. More precisely, these super-resolution patterns with discontinuous upright peaks are formed by one or three items of the integration series about the cylindrical waves according to our simulation results. This novel optical super-resolution with upright edges by using the thin microcavity theory presented in the study could have potential applications in the future semiconductor lithography process, nano-size laser-drilling technology, microscopy, optical storage, optical switch, and optical information processing.

Near-field fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy on planar membranes

The organization and dynamics of plasma membrane components at the nanometer scale are essential for biological functions such as transmembrane signaling and endocytosis. Planarized nanoscale apertures in a metallic film are demonstrated as a means of confining the excitation light for multicolor fluorescence spectroscopy to a 55 ± 10 nm beam waist. This technique provides simultaneous two-color, subdiffraction-limited fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy on planar membranes. The fabrication and implementation of this technique are demonstrated for both model membranes and live cells. Membrane-bound proteins were observed to cluster upon the addition of a multivalent cross-linker: On supported lipid bilayers, clusters of cholera toxin subunit B were formed upon cross-linking by an antibody specific for this protein; on living cells, immunoglobulin E bound to its receptor (FcεRI) on the plasma membranes of RBL mast cells was observed to form clusters upon exposure to a trivalent antigen. The formation of membrane clusters was quantified via fluorescence intensity vs time and changes in the temporal auto- and cross-correlations above a single nanoscale aperture. The illumination profile from a single aperture is analyzed experimentally and computationally with a rim-dominated illumination profile, yielding no change in the autocorrelation dwell time with changes in aperture diameter from 60 to 250 nm. This near-field fluorescence cross-correlation methodology provides access to nanoscale details of dynamic membrane interactions and motivates further development of near-field optical methods.

Phase-space non-paraxial propagation modes of optical fields in any state of spatial coherence

The non-paraxial marginal power spectrum is decomposed in propagation modes, so that the zeroth-order mode is only emitted by the radiant point sources at the aperture plane, while the modes of higher orders than zero are only emitted by the virtual point sources. It allows representing the non-paraxial propagation of optical fields in arbitrary states of spatial coherence and along arbitrary distances from the aperture plane without approximations, by simply using the power distribution and the spatial coherence state at the aperture plane as entries. This modal expansion is potentially useful in micro-diffraction and spatial coherence modulation.

Analysis of the shape of a subwavelength focal spot for the linearly polarized light

By decomposing a linearly polarized light field in terms of plane waves, the elliptic intensity distribution across the focal spot is shown to be determined by the E-vector's longitudinal component. Considering that the Poynting vector's projection onto the optical axis (power flux) is independent of the E-vector's longitudinal component, the power flux cross section has a circular form. Using a near-field scanning optical microscope (NSOM) with a small-aperture metal tip, we show that a glass zone plate (ZP) having a focal length of one wavelength focuses a linearly polarized Gaussian beam into a weak ellipse with the Cartesian axis diameters FWHM(x)=(0.44±0.02)λ and FWHM(y)=(0.52±0.02)λ and the (depth of focus) DOF=(0.75±0.02)λ, where λ is the incident wavelength. The comparison of the experimental and simulation results suggests that NSOM with a hollow pyramidal aluminum-coated tip (with 70° apex and 100 nm diameter aperture) measures the transverse intensity, rather than the power flux or the total intensity. The conclusion that the small-aperture metal tip measures the transverse intensity can be inferred from the Bethe-Bouwkamp theory.