Shrinkage of picosecond laser beam by plasma reflection in super-resolution near-field structure of SiN/Sb/SiN thin film.

ABSTRACT

The transmittive and reflective Z-scan technique is used with a 10 Hz, frequency doubled, Q-switched, and mode-locked NdYAG laser to verify that the reflectivity of the super-resolution near-field structure of an SiN/Sb/SiN thin film increases as incident intensity decreases. This intensity-dependent reflection, called nonlinear reflection, reflects a TEM(00) mode laser beam more strongly at its periphery than at its center and so shrinks the transmitted laser beam. The observed nonlinear reflection is attributed to laser-induced change of carrier densities in Sb, to justify quantitatively the experimental results.