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Simultaneous measurement of nanoscale electric and magnetic optical fields

Nature Photonics volume 8, pages 43–46 (2014)Cite this article

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A Corrigendum to this article was published on 28 February 2014

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Abstract

Control of light–matter interactions at the nanoscale has advanced fields such as quantum optics1, photovoltaics2 and telecommunications3. These advances are driven by an improved understanding of the nanoscale behaviour of light, enabled by direct observations of the local electric fields near photonic nanostructures4,5,6. With the advent of metamaterials that respond to the magnetic component of light7,8, schemes have been developed to measure the nanoscale magnetic field9,10,11,12. However, these structures interact not only with the magnetic field, but also with the electric field of light. Here, we demonstrate the essential simultaneous detection of both electric and magnetic fields with subwavelength resolution. By explaining our measurements through reciprocal considerations, we create a route towards designing probes sensitive to specific desired combinations of electric and magnetic field components. Simultaneous access to nanoscale electric and magnetic fields will pave the way for new designs of optical nanostructures and metamaterials.

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Figure 1: NSOM measurements of a PhCW.
Figure 2: Slices in the x–y plane at height h above the surface.
Figure 3: Probe size dependent sensitivities.

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  • 03 February 2014

    The reference section in the print version of this Letter contained the following errors: For ref. 3, the volume number should have been 4 rather than 3. For ref. 17, "15, 1289-1295" should have been http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1232009. For ref. 30, the volume number should have been 326 rather than 23. The online HTML and PDF versions of the Letter do not contain these errors.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank M. P. van Exter and J. J. Greffet for useful discussions and H. Schoenmaker for fabricating near-field probes. This work is supported by NanoNextNL of the Government of the Netherlands and 130 partners, as well as part of the research programme of the Stichting voor Fundamenteel Onderzoek der Materie (FOM), which is financially supported by the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO). Part of this work was funded by the project ‘SPANGL4Q’, which has financial support from the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) programme within the Seventh Framework Programme for Research of the European Commission (FET—Open grant no. FP7-284743).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. FOM Institute AMOLF, Science Park 104, Amsterdam, 1098 XG, The Netherlands

    B. le Feber, N. Rotenberg, D. M. Beggs & L. Kuipers

  2. HH Wills Physics Laboratory, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 1TL, UK

    D. M. Beggs

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  1. B. le Feber
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  2. N. Rotenberg
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  3. D. M. Beggs
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  4. L. Kuipers
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Contributions

B.F. and L.K. designed the experiment. B.F. conducted the experiment. N.R. and B.F. analysed the data. D.M.B. fabricated the sample. D.M.B. and B.F. performed simulations. The manuscript was prepared with contributions from all authors.

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Correspondence to B. le Feber or L. Kuipers.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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le Feber, B., Rotenberg, N., Beggs, D. et al. Simultaneous measurement of nanoscale electric and magnetic optical fields. Nature Photon 8, 43–46 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2013.323

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