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Nano Research 2023, 16(7): 9990-9996 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-5525-1
Research Article | Issue | Published: 14 March 2023

Polarization-insensitive plasmon nanofocusing with broadband interference modulation for optical nanoimaging

Show Author's Information Shaobo Li1,  Fei Wang1,  Ze Zhang1,  Shuhao Zhao1,  Chengsheng Xia1,  Peirui Ji1,  Xiaomin Wang1,  Guofeng Zhang1,  Tao Liu1,  Feng Chen2,  Shuming Yang1( )
State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Keywords:
near-field scanning optical microscopy, azimuthal asymmetries, plasmonic nanoconcentrator, fiber-based plasmonic tip
Topics:
Nano deviceImaging
Cite this article:
Li S, Wang F, Zhang Z, et al. Polarization-insensitive plasmon nanofocusing with broadband interference modulation for optical nanoimaging. Nano Research, 2023, 16(7): 9990-9996. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-5525-1
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Delivering light to the nanoscale using a flexible and easily integrated fiber platform holds potential in various fields of quantum science and bioscience. However, rigorous optical alignment, sophisticated fabrication process, and low spatial resolution of the fiber-based nanoconcentrators limit the practical applications. Here, a broadband azimuthal plasmon interference nanofocusing technique on a fiber-coupled spiral tip is demonstrated for fiber-based near-field optical nanoimaging. The spiral plasmonic fiber tip fabricated through a robust and reproducible process can reverse the polarization and modulate the mode field of the surface plasmon polaritons in three-dimensionally azimuthal direction, resulting in polarization-insensitive, broad-bandwidth, and azimuthal interference nanofocusing. By integrating this with a basic scanning near-field optical microscopy, a high optical resolution of 31 nm and beyond is realized. The high performance and the easy incorporation with various existing measurement platforms offered by this fiber-based nanofocusing technique have great potential in near-field optics, tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, nonlinear spectroscopy, and quantum sensing.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Polarization-insensitive plasmon nanofocusing with broadband interference modulation for optical nanoimaging

Show Author's information Shaobo Li1, Fei Wang1, Ze Zhang1, Shuhao Zhao1, Chengsheng Xia1, Peirui Ji1, Xiaomin Wang1, Guofeng Zhang1, Tao Liu1, Feng Chen2, Shuming Yang1( )
State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China

Abstract

Delivering light to the nanoscale using a flexible and easily integrated fiber platform holds potential in various fields of quantum science and bioscience. However, rigorous optical alignment, sophisticated fabrication process, and low spatial resolution of the fiber-based nanoconcentrators limit the practical applications. Here, a broadband azimuthal plasmon interference nanofocusing technique on a fiber-coupled spiral tip is demonstrated for fiber-based near-field optical nanoimaging. The spiral plasmonic fiber tip fabricated through a robust and reproducible process can reverse the polarization and modulate the mode field of the surface plasmon polaritons in three-dimensionally azimuthal direction, resulting in polarization-insensitive, broad-bandwidth, and azimuthal interference nanofocusing. By integrating this with a basic scanning near-field optical microscopy, a high optical resolution of 31 nm and beyond is realized. The high performance and the easy incorporation with various existing measurement platforms offered by this fiber-based nanofocusing technique have great potential in near-field optics, tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, nonlinear spectroscopy, and quantum sensing.

Keywords: near-field scanning optical microscopy, azimuthal asymmetries, plasmonic nanoconcentrator, fiber-based plasmonic tip

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 23 November 2022
Revised: 06 January 2023
Accepted: 22 January 2023
Published: 14 March 2023
Issue date: July 2023

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2023

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the support by the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (No. 52225507), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2021YFF0700402), and the Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi Province (No. 2021GXLH-Z-029).

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