Au nanotip as luminescent near-field probe.

Jäger, Sebastian; Kern, Andreas M; Hentschel, Mario; Jäger, Regina; Braun, Kai; Zhang, Dai; Giessen, Harald; Meixner, Alfred J · Nano Lett · 2013

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

We introduce a new optical near-field mapping method, namely utilizing the plasmon-mediated luminescence from the apex of a sharp gold nanotip. The tip acts as a quasi-point light source which does not suffer from bleaching and gives a spatial resolution of ≤25 nm. We demonstrate our method by imaging the near field of azimuthally and radially polarized plasmonic modes of nonluminescent aluminum oligomers.