Abstract
Using a photon scanning tunneling microscope with shear force feedback we directly probe optical fields of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) excited at surfaces of two silver films with different roughness. We observe that near-field optical images exhibit interference between the excited and multiple scattered SPPs. The orientation and period of interference fringes observed relatively far from surface scatterers indicate the presence of the backscattered SPP. These fringes are found to be more pronounced for the silver film with larger roughness. We relate the observed phenomenon to weak localization of SPPs caused by multiple SPP scattering in the surface plane.
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