Optical antenna arrays in the visible range

We report on experimental observations of highly collimated beams of radiation generated when a periodic sub-wavelength grating interacts with surface bound plasmon-polariton modes of a thin gold film. We find that the radiation process can be fully described in terms of interference of emission fro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inOptics express Vol. 15; no. 6; pp. 3478 - 3487
Main Authors Matthews, Daniel R, Summers, Huw D, Njoh, Kerenza, Chappell, Sally, Errington, Rachel, Smith, Paul
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 19.03.2007
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Summary:We report on experimental observations of highly collimated beams of radiation generated when a periodic sub-wavelength grating interacts with surface bound plasmon-polariton modes of a thin gold film. We find that the radiation process can be fully described in terms of interference of emission from a dipole antenna array and modeling the structure in this way enables the far-field radiation pattern to be predicted. The directionality, multiplicity and divergence of the beams can be completely described within this framework. Essential to the process are the surface plasmon excitations: these are the driving mechanism behind the beam formation, phase-coupling radiation from the periodic surface structure and thus imposing a spatial coherence. Detailed fitting of the experimental and modeled data indicates the presence of scattering events involving the interaction of two surface plasmon polariton modes.
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ISSN:1094-4087
1094-4087
DOI:10.1364/OE.15.003478