Fourier microscopy of single plasmonic scatterers

TL;DR

This paper introduces a Fourier microscopy technique for measuring the angular scattering patterns of individual plasmonic nanostructures, enabling detailed analysis of their optical properties for nanophotonics applications.

Contribution

A novel Fourier microscopy setup for quantifying the scattering patterns of single plasmonic and metamaterial nanoscatterers, advancing nanoscale optical characterization methods.

Findings

Radiation patterns of Au nanowires vary with length and polarization.

The setup effectively captures the evolution of scattering with structural changes.

Method provides insights into designing nano-antennas and light-harvesting devices.

Abstract

We report a new experimental technique for quantifying the angular distribution of light scattered by single plasmonic and metamaterial nanoscatterers, based on Fourier microscopy in a dark field confocal set up. This new set up is a necessary tool for quantifying the scattering properties of single plasmonic and meatamaterial building blocks, as well as small coupled clusters of such building blocks, which are expected to be the main ingredients of nano-antennas, light harvesting structures and transformation optics. We present a set of measurements on Au nanowires of different lengths and show how the radiation pattern of single Au nanowires evolve with wire length and as a function of driving polarization and wave vector.