| Issue |
Europhys. Lett.
Volume 60, Number 5, December 2002
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 663 - 669 | |
| Section | Electromagnetism, optics, acoustics, heat transfer, classical mechanics, and fluid dynamics | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2002-00360-9 | |
| Published online | 01 November 2002 | |
Non–diffraction-limited light transport by gold nanowires
Institute for Experimental Physics and Erwin Schrödinger
Institute for Nanoscale Research, Karl-Franzens-University Graz
A-8010 Graz, Austria
Received:
2
May
2002
Accepted:
23
September
2002
We show that metal nanowires sustaining collective electron
oscillations (surface plasmon polaritons) can be used as optical
waveguides. Thereby, the use of a metal allows to overcome the
limitations of miniaturization imposed on conventional dielectric
waveguides due to diffraction. To demonstrate this effect we
investigate a 200
wide and 50 high gold nanowire
locally excited at a light wavelength of 800. By direct
imaging the optical near-field with subwavelength-resolution
photon scanning tunneling microscopy we observe light transport
along the nanowire over a distance of a few μm. Besides the
realization of unprecedented integration densities of photonic
devices, metal nanowires could be effectively used to optically
address individual nanostructures or molecules.
PACS: 42.79.Gn – Optical waveguides and couplers / 42.25.Bs – Wave propagation, transmission and absorption / 71.45.Gm – Exchange, correlation, dielectric and magnetic response functions, plasmons
© EDP Sciences, 2002
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