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

Tianyang Zang, Haofeng Zang, Zheng Xi, Jing Du, Han Wang, Yonghua Lu, and Pei Wang
Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 243901 – Published 16 June 2020
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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.

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  • Received 21 February 2020
  • Accepted 1 June 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.243901

© 2020 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Atomic, Molecular & Optical

Authors & Affiliations

Tianyang Zang1, Haofeng Zang1, Zheng Xi2, Jing Du1, Han Wang1, Yonghua Lu1,3,*, and Pei Wang1,3,†

  • 1Department of Optics and Optical Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
  • 2Optics Research Group, Delft University of Technology, Department of Imaging Physics, Lorentzweg 1, 2628CJ Delft, The Netherlands
  • 3Advanced Laser Technology Laboratory of Anhui Province, Hefei, Anhui 230026, People’s Republic of China

  • *yhlu@ustc.edu.cn
  • wangpei@ustc.edu.cn

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Issue

Vol. 124, Iss. 24 — 19 June 2020

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