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Published Online June 20, 2002
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1071895

Reports

Submitted on March 15, 2002
Accepted on May 28, 2002

Beaming Light from a Subwavelength Aperture

H. J. Lezec 1, A. Degiron 1, E. Devaux 1, R. A. Linke 2, L. Martin-Moreno 3, F. J. Garcia-Vidal 4, T. W. Ebbesen 1*

1 ISIS, Louis Pasteur University, 4 rue B. Pascal, 67000 Strasbourg, France.
2 NEC Research Institute, 4 Independence Way, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA.
3 Departamento de Fisica de la Materia Condensada, ICMA-CSIC, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50015 Zaragoza, Spain.
4 Departamento de Fisica Teorica de la Materia Condensada, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ebbesen{at}isis-ulp.org.

Light usually diffracts in all directions when it emerges from a subwavelength aperture, which puts a lower limit on the size of features that can be used in photonics. This limitation can be overcome by creating a periodic texture on the exit side of a single aperture in a metal film. The transmitted light emerges from the aperture as a beam with a small angular divergence (ca. ±3°) whose directionality can be controlled. This finding is especially surprising considering that the radiating region is mainly confined to an area with lateral dimensions comparable to the wavelength of the light. The whole device occupies no more than one cubic micron, and when combined with enhanced transmission suggests a wide range of photonic applications.


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)