Visualizing surface plasmon polaritons by their gradient force

Jahng, J., Ladani, FT., Khan, RM., Li, X., Lee, ES., Potma, EO.
Opt Lett

Abstract

A new method is presented for visualizing the electric field distributions associated with propagating surface-plasmon-polariton (SPP) modes directly in the near-field. The method is based on detecting the photo-induced gradient force exerted by the evanescent field onto a sharp and polarizable tip. Using a photo-induced force microscope (PiFM), images of propagating SPPs are obtained on flat gold surfaces.

DOI: 10.1364/OL.40.005058