Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Originally published in Science Express on 20 June 2002
Science 2 August 2002:
Vol. 297. no. 5582, pp. 820 - 822
DOI: 10.1126/science.1071895
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

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. Ebbesen1*

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 (approximately ±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 device occupies no more than one cubic micrometer and, when combined with enhanced transmission, suggests that a wide range of photonic applications is possible.

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

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Managing light polarization via plasmon-molecule interactions within an asymmetric metal nanoparticle trimer.
T. Shegai, Z. Li, T. Dadosh, Z. Zhang, H. Xu, and G. Haran (2008)
PNAS 105, 16448-16453
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Breaking the diffraction barrier outside of the optical near-field with bright, collimated light from nanometric apertures.
P. R. H. Stark, A. E. Halleck, and D. N. Larson (2007)
PNAS 104, 18902-18906
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Plasmonics: Merging Photonics and Electronics at Nanoscale Dimensions.
E. Ozbay (2006)
Science 311, 189-193
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Sub-Diffraction-Limited Optical Imaging with a Silver Superlens.
N. Fang, H. Lee, C. Sun, and X. Zhang (2005)
Science 308, 534-537
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

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