0000000000376393
AUTHOR
D. Molenda
Enhanced light confinement in a triangular aperture: Experimental evidence and numerical calculations
We have recently demonstrated that the electric near-field emerging from a triangular aperture at the tip of a metal-coated tetrahedron of glass exhibits a highly confined and intense spot when the light incident from within the glass body is polarized perpendicularly to one edge of the aperture [Naber et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 210801 (2002)]. Here we present additional experimental material and a theoretical confirmation of this near-field optical effect. Based on the model of a triangular aperture in a planar metal film, we studied the influence of aperture size and film material on the field distribution. Even though our theoretical model is rather simplified as compared to the experi…
Single molecule imaging using a highly confined optical field at a triangular aperture
We demonstrate that scanning near-field optical microscopy based on a probe with a triangular aperture is capable of imaging single fluorescent molecules with an optical resolution of 30 nm. Numerical simulations agree well with experiment.
High-resolution mapping of the optical near-field components at a triangular nano-aperture.
A triangular nano-aperture in an aluminum film was used as a probe in a scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM) to image single fluorescent molecules with an optical resolution down to 30 nm. The differently oriented molecules were employed as point detectors to map the vectorial components of the electric field distribution at the illuminated triangular aperture. The good agreement of the experimental results with numerical simulations enabled us to determine both the field map at a triangular aperture and the exact orientations of the probing molecules.