Abstract
We describe a leakage radiation microscope technique that can be used to extend the leakage radiation microscopy to optically non-transparent samples. In particular, two experiments are presented, first to demonstrate that acquired images with our configuration correspond to the leakage radiation phenomenon and second, to show possible applications by directly imaging a plasmonic structure that previously could only be imaged with a near-field scanning optical microscope. It is shown that the measured surface plasmon wavelength and propagation length agree with theoretically-calculated values. This configuration opens the possibility to study important effects where samples are optically non-transparent, as in plasmonic cavities and single hole plasmonic excitation, without the use of time-consuming near-field scanning optical microscopy.
Highlights
In recent years, interactions of light with matter have revealed important physical phenomena with potential utility in a variety of scientific and technical fields, such as optical communication, optical logic and subwavelength manipulation of light [1,2,3]
Some alternative non-invasive techniques, such as quantum dot fluorescence (QDF) [13], cathodoluminescence (CL) [14] and leakage radiation microscopy (LRM) [15], have proven reliable tools to be used in place of near-field scanning optical microscope (NSOM)
In order to overcome the problems associated with the thickness of the metallic sample and the diffraction artifacts, we present here an alternate configuration of an LRM with the capability to study optically nontransparent samples illuminated from the back side, by observing directly onto the sample surface, creating an alternative to the conventional LRM
Summary
Interactions of light with matter have revealed important physical phenomena with potential utility in a variety of scientific and technical fields, such as optical communication, optical logic and subwavelength manipulation of light [1,2,3] One notable such interaction is the surface plasmon (SP), an optically-excited collective oscillation of electrons located at a metal-dielectric interface [4]. On the other hand, observation is performed directly on the sample surface by use of immersion oil coupling and, more importantly, the metallic coating can be optically thick but SP thin. This last fact is the reason we refer to its use with non-transparent samples.
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