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Abstract |
This presentation will give a review of the studies performed on plasmonic systems in the infrared at the
Langevin Institute. We will show the adaptation of scattering-type near-field scanning optical microscopy to
the detection of the field produced on active plasmonic devices, and then using the sole thermal radiation of
a sample in a mode called thermal radiation scanning tunneling microscopy. Detecting the thermal radiation in
the near field has allowed one to probe the electromagnetic local density of states and to reveal extraordinary
coherence effects associated with surface polaritons, giving rise to non-Planckian thermal radiation spectra.
The TRSTM method has been applied to investigate plasmonic materials and also more recently to study
individual metal-insulator-metal plasmonic antennas. In the latter case, infrared spatial modulation
spectroscopy has allowed one to measure the thermal radiation spectra of the subwavelength sized
resonators, while suppressing the background radiation which is generally so overwhelming that it prevents
one to measure the thermal radiation spectrum from small objects with a Fourier transform infrared
spectrometer. |
