Issue |
Europhys. Lett.
Volume 64, Number 5, December 2003
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 634 - 640 | |
Section | General | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2003-00275-y | |
Published online | 01 November 2003 |
Remote optical addressing of single nano-objects
Laboratoire de Spectrométrie Physique, CNRS UMR5588, Université Joseph Fourier Grenoble - BP 87, 38402 Saint Martin d'Hères cedex, France
Corresponding author: serge.huant@ujf-grenoble.fr
Received:
15
May
2003
Accepted:
2
October
2003
We present a scheme for remotely addressing single nano-objects by means of near-field optical microscopy that makes only use of one of the most fundamental properties of electromagnetic radiation: its polarization. A medium containing optically active nano-objects is covered with a thin metallic film presenting sub-wavelength holes. When the optical tip is positioned some distance away from a hole, surface plasmons in the metal coating are generated which, by turning the polarization plane of the excitation light, transfer the excitation towards a chosen hole and induce emission from the underlying nano-objects. The method, easily applicable to other systems, is demonstrated for single quantum dots (QDs) at low temperature. It may become a valuable tool for future optical applications in the nanoworld.
PACS: 07.79.Fc – Near-field scanning optical microscopes / 78.67.-n – Optical properties of low-dimensional, mesoscopic, and nanoscale materials and structures / 73.20.Mf – Collective excitations (including excitons, polarons, plasmons and other charge-density excitations)
© EDP Sciences, 2003
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.