Performance of Scanning Near-Field Optical Microscope Probes with Single Groove and Various Metal Coatings

We investigate the performance of a simple corrugated aperture scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM) probe with various cladding metals. The probes have only one corrugation, however, they offer increased transmission over both uncorrugated probes and those with many grooves. Enhancement of light throughput results from excitation of surface plasmons at the corrugation at the core–cladding interface. We show how the choice of metal influences radiation properties of grooved probes

Self-assembly method of linearly aligning ZnO quantum dots for a nanophotonic signal transmission device

We report a self-assembly method that aligns nanometer-sized quantum dots (QDs) into a straight line along which photonic signals can be transmitted by optically near-field effects. ZnO QDs were bound electrostatically to DNA to form a one-dimensional QD chain. The photoluminescence intensity under parallel polarization excitation along the QDs chain was much greater than under perpendicular polarization excitation, indicating an efficient signal transmission along the QD chain. As optical near-field energy can transmit through the resonant energy level, nanophotonic signal transmission devices have a number of potential applications, such as wavelength division multiplexing using QDs of different sizes