Abstract
Surface plasmon resonators can drastically redistribute incident light over different output wave vectors and polarizations. This can lead for instance to sub-diffraction sized nanoapertures in metal films that beam and to nanoparticle antennas that enable efficient conversion of photons between spatial modes, or helicity channels. We present a polarimetric Fourier microscope as a new experimental tool to completely characterize the angle-dependent polarization-resolved scattering of single nanostructures. Polarimetry allows determining the full Stokes parameters from just six Fourier images. The degree of polarization and the polarization ellipse are measured for each scattering direction collected by a high NA objective. We showcase the method on plasmonic bullseye antennas in a metal film, which are known to beam light efficiently. We find rich results for the polarization state of the beamed light, including complete conversion of input polarization from linear to circular and from one helicity to another. In addition to uncovering new physics for plasmonic groove antennas, the described technique projects to have a large impact in nanophotonics, in particular towards the investigation of a broad range of phenomena ranging from photon spin Hall effects, polarization to orbital angular momentum transfer and design of plasmon antennas.
Highlights
Surface plasmon resonators can drastically redistribute incident light over different output wave vectors and polarizations
In addition to uncovering new physics for plasmonic groove antennas, the described technique projects to have a large impact in nanophotonics, in particular towards the investigation of a broad range of phenomena ranging from photon spin Hall effects, polarization to orbital angular momentum transfer and design of plasmon antennas
In order to demonstrate k-space polarimetry we consider bullseye antenna scatterers (BEs), consisting of periodic grooves concentric to a circular hole in a plasmonic metal film, Fig. 1 (a)
Summary
This paper introduces high-NA k-space polarimetry[17,18,19,20] as a technique to measure the response of single scatterers to incident fields with different polarizations. This technique combines a Fourier microscope[21,22], capable of mapping the k-vector distribution of scattered radiation, with a polarimeter[23,24,25] that measures the full polarization state for each wave vector. Polarimeters perform complete polarization measurement, that is measurements that allow retrieving the Stokes parameters S0, S1, S2 and S3 In this work we place a polarimeter in a Fourier microscope, to determine the polarization state for each scattered k-vector.
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