Grating-Coupling of Surface Plasmons onto Metallic Tips:  A Nanoconfined Light Source

Ropers, Claus; Neacsu, Catalin C.; Elsaesser, Thomas; Albrecht, M.; Raschke, Markus B.; Lienau, Christoph

doi:10.1021/nl071340m

Cited by 464 publications

(420 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…This possible excitation scheme is analogous to that of a solid metal taper, where the SPPs are induced at the outer surface and propagate to the apex of the tips [47,48]. However, in such a scheme, the direct plasmonic excitation of the plain metal surface is restricted due to the dispersion relation of the SPPs.…”

Section: Tapered Hollow Waveguidesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1.3 Plasmon-enhanced strong-field gas excitation for reasons of momentum conservation it is usually unavoidable to use a prism or grating to realize efficient SPP coupling in such a scenario [47,48]. In contrast, the incoupling of SPP waves into a hollow tapered waveguide also seems to work without special structural requirements at its inner surface.…”

Section: Tapered Hollow Waveguidesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Extreme-ultraviolet light generation in plasmonic nanostructures

et al. 2013

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The present (cumulative) thesis examines fundamentals of nanostructure-enhanced extreme-ultraviolet light generation in noble gases using two different nanostructure geometries for local field-enhancement. Specifically, resonant antennas and tapered hollow waveguide nanostructures are utilized to enhance low-energy femtosecond laser pulses, which in turn induce light emission from excited xenon, argon and neon atoms and ions. Spectral analysis of this radiation reveals that coherent high-order harmonic generation is not feasible under the examined conditions, contrary to former expectations and reports. Instead, the spectral characteristics unequivocally identify that incoherent fluorescence from multiphoton excited and strong-field ionized gas atoms is the predominant process in such schemes. Furthermore, novel nanostructure-enhanced effects are reported such as surface-enhanced fifth-order harmonic generation (from bow-tie nanoantennas) and the formation of a bistable nanoplasma (in a hollow waveguide). These effects offer intriguing links between nonlinear nano-optics, plasma dynamics and extreme-ultraviolet radiation.v vi

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Section: Tapered Hollow Waveguidesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Tapered Hollow Waveguidesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extreme-ultraviolet light generation in plasmonic nanostructures

et al. 2013

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“…However, as a nanowire, a TERS tip can guide, 'focus' surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) propagating on its flank, and consequently enhance the local electric field at the tip apex. [22,23] It is important to investigate the impact of such delocalized effects at the tip apex. Besides the infinite length, the illumination is also an important issue in TERS.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local field enhancement of an infinite conical metal tip illuminated by a focused beam

Zhang

Cui

Martin

2009

J Raman Spectroscopy

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We present a systematic numerical investigation of conical metal tips which are commonly used in tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS). Different from previous studies, we focus on how the tip length and the illumination condition influence the local field enhancement at the tip apex, and provide a useful reference for real experiments. In particular, we show that the type of illumination has a dramatic influence on the field enhancement: a localized illumination spot -as used in experiments -producing a very different response than a plane wave illumination -as usually used in previous models. Also, the effect of the different geometrical parameters, such as the sharpness of the tip apex and the cone angle, provides guidance to optimize the tip design. Finally, we investigate the influence of the substrate and compare numerical data with results deduced from a simplified model, finding good agreement. This brings new insights into the enhancement mechanism of TERS.

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“…The tips are formed through an electrochemical etching process, resulting in ∼10 nm apex radius, as discussed previously [21]. SPP's are launched onto the tip using a laterally chirped fanshaped plasmonic grating element, allowing tunable broadband grating-coupling, in order to overcome the momentum mismatch between the incident wavevector and the SPP [20].The light emission from the tip apex is collected through a separate objective, with spatial and spectral filtering, and detected using a spectrometer with a N 2 (l)-cooled CCD. demonstrated by scanning the tip over a nanometer edged reference sample [21].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Femtosecond Nanofocusing with Full Optical Waveform Control

et al. 2011

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The spatial confinement and temporal control of an optical excitation on nanometer length scales and femtosecond time scales has been a long-standing challenge in optics. It would provide spectroscopic access to the elementary optical excitations in matter on their natural length and time scales [1] and enable applications from ultrafast nano-opto-electronics to single molecule quantum coherent control [2]. Previous approaches have largely focused on using surface plasmon polariton (SPP) resonant nanostructures [3] or SPP waveguides [4, 5] to generate nanometer localized excitations. However, these implementations generally suffer from mode mismatch [6] between the far-field propagating light and the near-field confinement. In addition, the spatial localization in itself may depend on the spectral phase and amplitude of the driving laser pulse thus limiting the degrees of freedom available to independently control the nano-optical waveform. Here we utilize femtosecond broadband SPP coupling, by laterally chirped fan gratings, onto the shaft of a monolithic noble metal tip, leading to adiabatic SPP compression and localization at the tip apex [7, 8]. In combination with spectral pulse shaping [9, 10] with feedback on the intrinsic nonlinear response of the tip apex, we demonstrate the continuous micro-to nano-scale self-similar mode matched transformation of the propagating femtosecond SPP field into a 20 nm spatially and 16 fs temporally confined light pulse at the tip apex.Furthermore, with the essentially wavelength and phase independent 3D focusing mechanism we show the generation of arbitrary optical waveforms nanofocused at the tip. This unique femtosecond nano-torch with high nano-scale power delivery in free space and full spectral and temporal control opens the door for the extension of the powerful nonlinear and ultrafast vibrational and electronic spectroscopies to the 2 nanoscale [11, 12].In order to achieve the goal of an efficient nanometer confined femtosecond light source with independent spatial localization and temporal control of the optical field, and which can freely be manipulated in 3D, the use of the unique properties of surface plasmon polaritons (SPP's) has long been discussed as a potential solution. It is well established that the strong surface field localization and size and shape dependent resonances of SPP's as electromagnetic surface waves associated with collective charge density oscillations at noble metal-dielectric interfaces allow for sub-wavelength spatial control of even broadband optical fields [13]. Elegant solutions to overcome the SPP diffraction limit [14] and achieve nano-focusing based on interference of localized SPP modes exist in the form of specially arranged cascaded, percolated, or self-similar chains of metal nanostructures as optical antennas [3,15,16]. However, the achievable optical waveforms at the nano-focus are often constrained by the phase relationship between the spectral modes already necessary to achieve the 3D nano-focusing [5]. This limits ...

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Grating-Coupling of Surface Plasmons onto Metallic Tips: A Nanoconfined Light Source

Cited by 464 publications

References 44 publications

Extreme-ultraviolet light generation in plasmonic nanostructures

Extreme-ultraviolet light generation in plasmonic nanostructures

Local field enhancement of an infinite conical metal tip illuminated by a focused beam

Femtosecond Nanofocusing with Full Optical Waveform Control

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