Plasmonic interferometry: Probing launching dipoles in scanning-probe plasmonics

摘要

We develop a semi-analytical method for analyzing surface plasmon interferometry using scanning-probe tips as SP launchers. We apply our approach to Young double-hole interferometry experiments in a scanning tunneling microscope discussed recently in the literature as well as to new experiments-reported here-with an aperture near-field scanning optical microscope source positioned near a ring-like aperture slit in a thick gold film. In both experimental configurations, the agreement between experiments and model is very good. Our work reveals the role of the launching dipole orientations and magnetic versus electric dipole contributions to the interference imaging process. It also stresses the different orientations of the effective dipoles associated with the two different scanning-probe techniques.