Related papers: Leakage radiation microscopy of surface plasmons l…
We demonstrate `deterministic' launching of propagative quantum surface-plasmon polaritons at freely chosen positions on gold plasmonic receptacles. This is achieved by using as plasmon launcher a near-field scanning optical source made of…
We introduce a point-like scanning single-photon source that operates at room temperature and offers an exceptional photostability (no blinking, no bleaching). This is obtained by grafting in a controlled way a diamond nanocrystal (size…
A nanodiamond (ND) hosting nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers is attached on the apex of an optical tip for near-field microscopy. Its fluorescence is used to launch surface plasmon-polaritons (SPPs) in a thin polycrystalline gold film. It…
We recently (Optics Express 17, 19969 (2009)) introduced an all-optical method for grafting onto the apex of an optical tip a single 20 nm nanodiamond with single color-center occupancy and used the resulting single-photon tip in scanning…
We review the principle and methodology of leakage radiation microscopy (LRM) applied to surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). Therefore we first analyse in detail the electromagnetic theory of leaky SPP waves. We show that LRM is a versatile…
This paper addresses recent experimental findings about luminescence of a gold tip in near-field interaction with a gold surface. Our electrochemically etched gold tips show a typical, intrinsic luminescence that we exploit to track the…
We introduce a new method for performing ultrafast imaging and tracking of surface plasmon wave packets that propagate on metal films. We demonstrate the efficiency of leakage radiation microscopy implemented in the time domain for…
We present results showing the potential of diamond nanoparticles with size less than 50 nm as photoluminescent nanoprobes for serving as stable point-like emitters attached at the tip apex of a near-field optical microscope to achieve…
We review our recent developments of near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) that uses an active tip made of a single fluorescent nanodiamond (ND) grafted onto the apex of a substrate fiber tip. The ND hosting a limited number of…
This paper reports on the excitation of surface plasmons on gold-coated nanofibre tips by side-illumination with a laser beam and the coupling of the surface plasmons to the optical fiber. The measurements show a strong dependence of the…
We present an overview of recent progress in plasmonics. We focus our study on the observation and excitation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) with optical near-field microscopy. We discuss in particular recent applications of photon…
We demonstrate the generation of far-field propagating optical beams with a desired orbital angular momentum by using a smooth optical mode transformation between a plasmonic vortex and free space Laguerre-Gaussian modes. This is obtained…
We discuss theoretically the concept of spatial resolution in near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) in light of a recent work [Opt. Express 17 (2009) 19969] which reported on the achievement of active tips made of a single…
We demonstrate that the dispersion of surface plasmon polaritons in a periodically perforated gold film can be efficiently manipulated by femtosecond laser pulses with the wavelengths far from the intrinsic resonances of gold. Using a time-…
The ability to modulate light at high speeds is of paramount importance for telecommunications, information processing, and medical imaging technologies. This has stimulated intense efforts to master optoelectronic switching at visible and…
Metallic nanostructures can support so-called plasma oscillations (plasmons). Plasmons allow for the concentration of the energy from light, down to sizes well below the conventional diffraction limit known from optics. Plasmonics thus…
Random lasing occurs as the result of coherent optical feedback from random scattering centers. Plasmonic nanostructures, such as silver or gold nanoparticles, efficiently scatter light due to the formation of hot spots and optical…
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…
A new far-field optical microscopy technique capable of reaching nanometer-scale resolution has been developed recently using the in-plane image magnification by surface plasmon polaritons. This microscopy is based on the optical properties…
Leaky radiation microscopy (LRM) is used to directly image the surface plasmon-coupled emission (SPCE). When compared with the prism based set-up commonly used in SPCE research, LRM has the advantages of directly giving out the emitting…