Jean-Marie Vigoureux

Role of Wood anomalies in optical properties of thin metallic films with a bidimensional array of subwavelength holes

Recents works dealt with the optical transmission on arrays of subwavelength holes in a metallic layer deposited on a dielectric substrate. Making the system as realistic as possible, we perform simulations to enlighten the experimental data. This paper proposes an investigation of the optical properties related to the transmission of such devices. Numerical simulations give theoretical results in good agreement with experiment, and we observe that the transmission and reflection behavior correspond to Fanos profile correlated with resonant response of the eigen modes coupled with nonhomogeneous diffraction orders. We thus conclude that the transmission properties observed could conceivably be explained as resulting from resonant Woods anomalies.

External and internal reflection near field microscopy: experiments and results.

Two configurations of a scanning near field optical microscope working in reflection are presented. Results exhibiting nanometric resolution are given and discussed.

General principles of scanning tunneling optical microscopy

A homogeneous propagating wave falling onto submicrometer objects is partially diffracted into evanescent waves. The use of a scattering probe of subwavelength size can convert the evanescent waves into homogeneous ones and make their detection possible. The resulting propagating waves can then provide information about the subwavelength object. Relations with preliminary experiments are discussed.

Detection of nonradiative fields in light of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and the Rayleigh criterion

The new concept of superresolution microscopy involving nonradiative field detection by optical tunneling is analyzed in light of the Heisenberg principle and the Rayleigh criterion. A connection is demonstrated between the evanescent field components and the systems resolving power. This work is quite general and can be applied to scanning electronic tunneling microscopy.

Superresolution of near-field optical microscopy defined from properties of confined electromagnetic waves

The experimental resolution that is obtained with a near-field microscope by optical tunneling detection is far beyond the Rayleigh criterion. We discuss the principal physical characteristics of this superresolution. Three different examples are presented. They show that the resolution increases as the collector width and collector-to-object distance decrease. It is interesting to note that, in the near-field microscope, as in all local probe microscopes, the resolution cannot be defined from the characteristics of the microscope only. In all tunnel devices the detector cannot be separated from the object. The superresolution that can be obtained results from this fact. This paper also points out the importance ofevanescent waves in near-field optics and makes the connection between resolving power and evanescent fields.

Polynomial formulation of reflection and transmission by stratified planar structures

We present a polynomial approach to the calculation of reflection and transmission coefficients of stratified planar structures. Starting with the usual matrix method and generalizing the so-called elementary symmetric functions used in the mathematical theory of polynomials, we show that these coefficients can be expressed in a form so simple that they can be written directly without any calculation for any number of interfaces. We essentially deal with the case of electromagnetic waves; our results can, however, be applied in other fields of physics that use reflection and transmission coefficients and particularly to matter waves satisfying Schrodinger’s equation. Among such applications, our results may provide a useful tool in calculations of quantum wells as seen in a number of applications and experiments.

Use of Einstein’s addition law in studies of reflection by stratified planar structures

I show that the reflection coefficient of any stratified planar structure can be obtained by using a complex generalization of Einsteins addition theorem for parallel velocities. This result also applies to multiple quantum wells. It provides a new mathematical tool in optics and in quantum theory and may lead to useful algorithms in computing. It may also give a new insight into special relativity. The composition law of velocities, in fact, no longer appears as a specific result of special relativity but rather as the expression, in the particular case of kinematics, of a more general law of physics. The possible use of the composition law of probability amplitude in quantum theory is also presented.

Numerical study of the displacement of a three-dimensional Gaussian beam transmitted at total internal reflection. Near-field applications

Longitudinal and transverse shifts of a light beam at total internal reflection was experimentally studied by far-field measurements on the reflected field. We propose to use a scanning tunneling optical microscope (STOM) to study these shifts in transmission, and we present a theoretical model of this proposed experiment to obtain a numerical estimation of these shifts. We study the reflection and the transmission of a three-dimensional polarized incident beam. We verify the validity of our formalism by studying the Goos-Hanchen shift in reflection and by comparing our results with published ones. Then we calculate STOM images of the transmitted field distribution. On the images the well-known Goos-Hanchen shift is easily observed. But we also encounter a smaller shift, perpendicular to the plane of incidence. This transverse shift was also observed in reflection by Imbert and Levy [Nouv. Rev. Opt. 6, 285 (1975)]. We study the variations of the two shifts versus various parameters such as the angle of incidence, the optical index, and the incident polarization. Then we discuss the feasibility of the near-field observation of these shifts.

A geometric phase in optical multilayers

Abstract We show that the phase appearing when studying the reflection of light on optical multilayers using the composition law of amplitudes has a structure similar to that of the Berry phase and to that of the relativistic Thomas precession.

A theoretical study of near-field detection and excitation of surface plasmons

Abstract Recently, optical near-field techniques have been applied to detect or to excite surface plasmons at vacuum–metal interface. In this paper we propose a theoretical study of those experiments. We firstly describe the formalism, the sample being a multilayered structure with flat interfaces. The incident field and the field in each layer are expressed as 3D plane-wave expansions. The spatial Fourier amplitudes in each layer are linearly connected to the incident ones by transmission matrices. We then apply this formalism to describe the excitation of a surface plasmon in a Kretschmann geometry and its detection by a near-field probe. In the second experiment, the tip was used in the emission mode to excite the surface plasmons, which were thus far-field detected. We describe the experiment using the Bethe–Bouwkamp model for tip emission.