Oscillatory penetration of near-fields in plasmonic excitation at metal-dielectric interfaces.

The electric field immediately below an illuminated metal-film that is perforated with a hole array on a dielectric consists of direct transmission and scattering of the incident light through the holes and evanescent near-field from plasmonic excitations. Depending on the size and shape of the hole apertures, it exhibits an oscillatory decay in the propagation direction. This unusual field penetration is explained by the interference between these contributions, and is experimentally confirmed through an aperture which is engineered with four arms stretched out from a simple circle to manipulate a specific plasmonic excitation available in the metal film. A numerical simulation quantitatively supports the experiment. This fundamental characteristic will impact plasmonics with the near-fields designed by aperture engineering for practical applications.

Near field imaging of terahertz focusing onto rectangular apertures.

We performed terahertz near-field experiments on single rectangular holes with various lengths grown on an electro-optic crystal substrate with lambda/100 resolution. We find that the near-field amplitude becomes proportionally larger as the rectangle becomes narrower, strongly suggesting that a constant energy passes through even for a very narrow slit. The occurrence of a large field enhancement at the fundamental localized resonance is discussed confirming the funneling of energy at the near-field.

Advanced terahertz electric near-field measurements at sub-wavelength diameter metallic apertures.

Using terahertz-light excitation, we have measured with sub-wavelength spatial, and sub-cycle temporal resolution the time- and frequency-dependent electric-field and surface-charge density in the vicinity of small metallic holes. In addition to a singularity like concentration of the electric field near the hole edges, we observe, that holes can act as differential operators whose near-field output is the time-derivative of the incident electric field. Our results confirm the well-known predictions made by Bouwkamp, Philips Res. Rep. 5, 321-332 (1950), and reveal, with unprecedented detail, what physically happens when light passes through a small hole.

Fourier-transform terahertz near-field imaging of one-dimensional slit arrays: mapping of electric-field-, magnetic-field-, and Poynting vectors.

We present 2D measurements of the full THz electric field behind a sample consisting of multiple slits in a metal foil. Our measurements, which have a sub-wavelength spatial, and a sub-period temporal resolution, reveal electric field lines, electric field vortices and saddle points. From our measurements we are able to reconstruct the magnetic field and, finally, the position and time-dependent Poynting vector which shows the flow of energy behind the sample. Our results show that it is possible to study the flow of light near sub-wavelength plasmonic structures such as slit-arrays and, by implication, other metamaterial samples.

Terahertz transparency at Fabry-Perot resonances of periodic slit arrays in a metal plate: experiment and theory.

We report on a perfect transmission in one-dimensional metallic structure using time-domain terahertz spectroscopy. Fabry-Perot resonance appearing in spectral region below first Rayleigh minimum strongly enhances transmission up to over ninety-nine percent. Theoretical calculations reveal that under the perfect transmission condition, a symmetric eigenmode inside the slits is excited and a funneling of all incident energy onto the slits occurs, resulting in large energy concentration equivalent to the inverse sample coverage and high near-field enhancement of electric and magnetic field intensities. Our work opens way toward near-field terahertz amplification, applicable to high-field terahertz spectroscopy.

Microscopic origin of surface-plasmon radiation in plasmonic band-gap nanostructures.

We report spatial domain measurements of the damping of surface-plasmon excitations in metal films with periodic nanohole arrays. The measurements reveal a short coherent propagation length of a few microm inside nanohole arrays, consistent with delays of about 10 fs in ultrafast transmission experiments. This implies that the transmission spectra of the entire plasmonic band-gap structure are homogeneously broadened by radiative damping of surface-plasmon excitations. We show that a Rayleigh-like scattering of surface plasmons by the periodic hole array is the microscopic origin of this damping, allowing the reradiation rate to be controlled.

Modification of self-induced transparency by a coherent control field.

We consider self-induced transparency (SIT) in a two-level atomic system in the presence of an additional control laser field. We find that the dynamics of the SIT process are profoundly modified by the control field, in a manner reminiscent of the modification of other nonlinear optical interactions through the process of electromagnetically induced transparency. The presence of the control field allows SIT to occur under a much broader range of conditions and leads to dramatically reduced values of the group velocity of the SIT soliton.