TY - JOUR
T1 - Resonantly enhanced transmission of light through subwavelength apertures with dielectric filling
AU - Xu, Huizhong
AU - Zhu, Pangshun
AU - Craighead, Harold G.
AU - Webb, Watt W.
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge the motivation of this work by various observations at Cornell that light leaks through zero-mode waveguides decorated internally by lipids or cells. We would like to thank Mark Williams for editing and many helpful suggestions. This research is supported by NIH Grant No. 9-P41-EB001976, NSF Grant No. DMR-0520404, and the STC program of the NSF under agreement No. ECS-9876771.
Copyright:
Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2009/4/1
Y1 - 2009/4/1
N2 - Using both analytical and numerical methods to study transmission of light through dielectric-filled subwavelength apertures in a real metal, we have found that a propagating mode can in principle exist inside a waveguide of arbitrary small size if a particular relationship between the dielectric constants of the cladding and filling materials at the incident frequency is satisfied. Practical transmission through a subwavelength aperture of finite depth can be enhanced when the depth is such that Fabry-Pérot-like resonances are excited. For 810 nm light incident on a silicon-filled 50-nm-diameter aperture in a 200-nm-thick gold film, we found that a normalized near-field intensity ratio of 1.6 at the exit can be achieved. This resonantly enhanced transmission phenomenon may be advantageously applicable to near-field scanning optical microscopy and single-molecule spectroscopy.
AB - Using both analytical and numerical methods to study transmission of light through dielectric-filled subwavelength apertures in a real metal, we have found that a propagating mode can in principle exist inside a waveguide of arbitrary small size if a particular relationship between the dielectric constants of the cladding and filling materials at the incident frequency is satisfied. Practical transmission through a subwavelength aperture of finite depth can be enhanced when the depth is such that Fabry-Pérot-like resonances are excited. For 810 nm light incident on a silicon-filled 50-nm-diameter aperture in a 200-nm-thick gold film, we found that a normalized near-field intensity ratio of 1.6 at the exit can be achieved. This resonantly enhanced transmission phenomenon may be advantageously applicable to near-field scanning optical microscopy and single-molecule spectroscopy.
KW - Apertures
KW - Diffraction
KW - Near-field scanning optical microscopy
KW - Surface plasmon polaritons
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U2 - 10.1016/j.optcom.2008.12.036
DO - 10.1016/j.optcom.2008.12.036
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:59749090124
VL - 282
SP - 1467
EP - 1471
JO - Optics Communications
JF - Optics Communications
SN - 0030-4018
IS - 7
ER -