Weak-disturbance imaging and characterization of ultra-confined optical near fields

Liu Yang; Yaolong Li; Jinglin Tang; Zhanke Zhou; Hongliang Dang; Zhaohang Xue; Xiaofang Li; Zini Cao; Yijie Luo; Hong Yang; Xiongyong Hu; Wei Wang; Xin Guo; Pan Wang; Guowei Lyu; Qihuang Gong; Limin Tong

doi:10.1038/s41377-025-01951-6

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Weak-disturbance imaging and characterization of ultra-confined optical near fields

Original Articles

- Weak-disturbance imaging and characterization of ultra-confined optical near fields
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 14, Issue 11, Pages: 3726-3734(2025)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.New Cornerstone Science Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Extreme Photonics and Instrumentation, College of Optical Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
  2.State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics & Department of Physics, Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter and Frontiers Science Center for Nano-optoelectronics, Peking University, 100871 Beijing, China
  3.Peking University Yangtze Delta Institute of Optoelectronics, Nantong 226010, China
  4.Collaborative Innovation Center of Extreme Optics, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China
  5.Jiaxing Key laboratory of Photonic Sens-ing & intelligent imaging, intelligent Optics & Photonics Research center, JiaxingResearch institute Zhejiang University, Jiaxing 314000, China
- Author bio：
  
  Yaolong Li (yaolong@pku.edu.cn)
  Guowei Lyu (guowei.lu@pku.edu.cn)
  Limin Tong (phytong@zju.edu.cn)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-025-01951-6
  CLC：
- Received：18 December 2024，
  
  Revised：2025-05-20，
  
  Accepted：02 July 2025，
  
  Published Online：04 October 2025，
  
  Published：30 November 2025
- Accepted：
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Yang, L. et al. Weak-disturbance imaging and characterization of ultra-confined optical near fields. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 3726-3734 (2025).
DOI：

Yang, L. et al. Weak-disturbance imaging and characterization of ultra-confined optical near fields. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 3726-3734 (2025). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-025-01951-6.

摘要

Abstract

Ultra-confined optical fields are of great importance in fundamental optics and optical technologies. The extreme field confinement in ultra-small nanostructures presents significant challenges in direct near-field characterization. Conventional scanning near-field optical microscopy encounters difficulties in characterizing sub-10-nm confined light fields due to significant disturbances of the optical field caused by the probe. Here

by employing a high spatial-resolved photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM)

we succeeded in imaging the ultra-confined near fields of a nanoslit mode in a coupled nanowire pair (CNP) with weak disturbance for the first time and demonstrating a quasi-three-dimensional field distribution of the nanoslit mode. We also show that a PEEM image can identify fabrication defects that are influential to the confined field but are imperceptible to many other means. These results open an opportunity for weak-disturbance characterization of ultra-confined optical near fields

which is an essential step toward future optical devices or technology relying on ultra-confined light.

关键词

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references

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