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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Controlling Light Confinement by Excitation of Localized Surface Plasmons

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description

Localized surface plasmons can be used to control near-field optical phenomena in the subwavelength range. Specifically, this chaper reviews recent results which show that localized surface plasmons can confine the optical intensity down to nanoscopic dimensions. The discussion first considers how a collection-mode near-field optical microscope can observe the squeezing of the plasmon field of metallic nanostructures deposited on a flat surface. Numerical simulations then provide illustrations of the confined fields associated with nanostructures which are feasible using current microfabrication techniques. Finally, we present arguments which explain how localized surface plasmons can deliver a significant amount of power to the very end of a tetrahedral tip used as the light source of an illumination-mode near-field optical microscope.