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Design of plasmonic probe tips to control light on the nanoscale for imaging and spectroscopy with ultrahigh spatial and temporal resolution


EMSL Project ID
38203

Abstract

The optical probing of matter with simultaneous nanometer spatial and femtosecond temporal resolution has remained a great challenge. Here, using focused ion beam milling we will tune the optical antenna properties of scanning probe tips to achieve a spatially confined optical excitation with desired frequency and temporal characteristics. This provides access to the dynamics of mesoscopic phenomena at the dimensions of the electron or phonon scattering length scales for the first time in, for example, molecular nanocomposites and transition metal oxides. In addition, the new ability to probe the near-field vector distribution of nanophotonic and plasmonic devices with nanometer resolution in 3D provides a much needed design tool, offering a high technological potential for optical antenna-coupled molecular sensors, biomedical diagnostics, optical waveguides, and switches.

Project Details

Project type
Exploratory Research
Start Date
2009-12-15
End Date
2010-12-19
Status
Closed

Team

Principal Investigator

Bernd Raschke
Institution
University of Colorado at Boulder

Team Members

Brent Crabtree
Institution
University of Washington

Erik Josberger
Institution
University of Washington

Brian Burkholder
Institution
University of Washington

Robert Olmon
Institution
University of Colorado at Boulder

Related Publications

Olmon RL, M Rang, PM Krenz, BA Lail, LV Saraf, GD Boreman, and BM Raschke. 2010. "Determination of Electric-Field, Magnetic-Field, and Electric-Current Distributions of Infrared Optical Antennas: A Near-Field Optical Vector Network Analyzer." Physical Review Letters 105(16):Article No.: 167403. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.167403