Polarization of near-field light induced with a plasmonic nanoantenna

Abstract

© 2015 American Physical Society. Evaluation and control of a polarization state of optical near fields are of tremendous advantage for locally probing intrinsic molecular orientations of highly anisotropic molecules with a plasmonic (metallic) nanoantenna. In this paper, we report on a physical mechanism of reading a dipole orientation at the apex of a rough cone-shaped gold tip illuminated with radially and azimuthally polarized light. In-plane and out-of-plane arrangement of nonlinear optical chromophores embedded into a glassy polymer is probed with tip-enhanced Raman scattering.