Concentrator of magnetic field of light

Abstract

In the recent decade metamaterials with magnetic permeability different than unity and unusual response to the magnetic field of incident light have been intensively explored. Existence of magnetic artificial materials created an interest in a scanning near-field magnetic microscope for studies of magnetic responses of subwavelength elementary cells of those metamaterials. We present a method of measuring magnetic responses of such elementary cells within a wide range of optical frequencies with single probes of two types. The first type probe is made of a tapered silica fiber with radial metal stripes separated by equidistant slits of constant angular width. The second type probe is similar to metal coated, corrugated, tapered fiber apertured SNOM probe, but in this case corrugations are radially oriented. Both types of probes have internal illumination with azimuthally polarized light. In the near-field they concentrate into a subwavelength spot the longitudinal magnetic field component which is much stronger than the perpendicular electric one.