Asymmetric Excitation of Surface Plasmon Polaritons via Paired Slot Antennas for Angstrom Displacement Sensing

Journal article (2020)

Authors

Tianyang Zang University of Science and Technology of China
Haofeng Zang University of Science and Technology of China
Z. Xi ImPhys/Optics - AS
Jing Du University of Science and Technology of China
Han Wang University of Science and Technology of China
Yonghua Lu University of Science and Technology of China
Pei Wang University of Science and Technology of China
Research Group
ImPhys/Optics (AS) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2020 Tianyang Zang, Haofeng Zang, Z. Xi, Jing Du, Han Wang, Yonghua Lu, Pei Wang
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.243901
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Published Date

2020

Language

English

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Faculty

Applied Sciences

Department

ImPhys/Imaging Physics

Research Group

ImPhys/Optics

Abstract

Optical antennas enable efficient coupling between propagating light and bonding electromagnetic waves like surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). Under the illumination of inhomogeneous optical fields, propagating SPPs mediated by multimode antennas could be spatially asymmetric and the asymmetry strongly depends on the position of the antennas relative to the illumination field. Here we develop such asymmetric excitation of SPPs through illuminating a pair of slot antennas with the (1,0) mode Hermite-Gaussian beam. The physical scenario of the interaction between the illumination optical field and the paired slot antennas are elaborated by full-wave electromagnetic simulations. We also carry out experiments to monitor the asymmetric SPPs propagation with a back-focal plane imaging technique. By retrieving the asymmetric intensity ratio of the SPP pattern in the back-focal plane image, lateral displacement of the antennas down to angstrom level is demonstrated.