Resolution of objects within subwavelength range by using the near field of a dipole

We analyze the far-field resolution of apertures that are illuminated by a point dipole located at subwavelength distances. It is well known that radiation emitted by a localized source can be considered a combination of traveling and evanescent waves, when represented by the angular spectrum method. The evanescent wave part of the source can be converted to propagating waves by diffraction at the aperture; thereby it contributes to the far-field detection. Therefore one can expect an increase in the resolution of objects. We present explicit calculations showing that the resolution at the far zone is improved by decreasing the source-aperture distance. We also utilize the resolution enhancement by the near field of a dipole to resolve two closely located apertures. The results show that without the near field (evanescent field) the apertures are not resolved, whereas with the near field of the dipole the far zone intensity distribution shows improved resolution. This method eliminates the requirements of near-field techniques such as controlling and scanning closely located tip detectors.     

Direct formulation of the supersonic acoustic intensity in space domain

This paper proposes and examines a direct formulation in space domain of the so-called supersonic acoustic intensity. This quantity differs from the usual (active) intensity by excluding the circulating energy in the near-field of the source, providing a map of the acoustic energy that is radiated into the far field. To date, its calculation has been formulated in the wave number domain, filtering out the evanescent waves outside the radiation circle and reconstructing the acoustic field with only the propagating waves. In this study, the supersonic intensity is calculated directly in space domain by means of a two-dimensional convolution between the acoustic field and a spatial filter mask that corresponds to the space domain representation of the radiation circle. Therefore, the acoustic field that propagates effectively to the far field is calculated via direct filtering in space domain. This paper presents the theory, as well as a numerical example to illustrate some fundamental principles. An experimental study on planar radiators was conducted to verify the validity of the technique. The experimental results are presented, and serve to illustrate the usefulness of the analysis, its strengths and limitations.     

Acceleration of free electrons in a symmetric evanescent wave

The possibility of accelerating free electrons in a vacuum gap between closely spaced dielectric materials is explored. Plane waves impinging symmetrically on the gap from either side at oblique incidence produce an evanescent wave with net electric field along the direction of propagation. Near the critical angle, the evanescent wave propagates at the vacuum speed of light. A theoretical development and numerical simulations show that free electrons in the gap can be accelerated and accumulate energy indefinitely. This approach lies outside the purview of the Lawson-Woodward theorem, which does not apply in the vicinity of a medium. Damage thresholds of materials restrict the light intensity to far below that achievable by current high-power lasers. This limits the particle energy that might be achieved from an accelerator based on this approach.     

Contribution of evanescent waves to the far field: the atomic point of view

Evanescent modes of the electromagnetic field are seldom invoked in conventional far-field optics, as their contribution far from the source (a few wavelengths) is negligible. Contradicting this fact, in recent theoretical works, based on a particular decomposition of the free-space Green tensor, it has been asserted that evanescent waves do indeed contribute to the far field, where they appear as an additional ~1/r component of the field. We provide an explicit demonstration that evanescent modes do not contribute to the power radiated to the far field by any dipolar source. First we derive an expression for the free-space field susceptibility in which contributions from evanescent and homogeneous modes are separated, and then we use linear response theory to compute the decay rate for an atomic dipole in vacuum.     

Bandlimiting at variance with the strong radiation condition

The strong radiation condition O(r^?2) is fulfilled by the field of well-behaved (e.g. Gaussian) planar sources provided all spatial frequencies are included. The removal of any evanescent waves invalidates this condition and produces divergences in the source plane.     

Virtual photon scattering at subwavelength sized tips

Silicon AFM tips can profitably be used as optical sensors for near field optical microscopy. In particular they are able to convert evanescent waves (also called virtual photons) into propagating ones which are conveniently guided in the tip and transferred to the air at the back of the cantilever. In this paper it is shown that virtual photons scattered at the tip end are also converted into real ones which are observed in the far field. Contrary to the previous observations of similar conversion at STM metal tips the scattered emission at dielectric silicon tips does not have a dependence with distance of a full exponential decay but rather follows the more complex dependence of the dielectric capture. This observation is consistent with Mie's theory of scattering of real photons by small particles. Experiments are performed with boths andp polarizations showing a regular dependence of the scattered intensity with the incidence angle. The same experiment is also performed with metallized silicon tips showing a metal scattering behaviour. This results can help to achieve a better control of the tip position in the close range of distances in a Photon Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (PSTM) experiment.     

Generating mechanism of the energy-stream loops for the evanescent waves in a left-handed material slab

The generating mechanism of the energy-stream loops (ESLs) for the evanescent waves around the interfaces of a left-handed material (LHM) slab has been investigated with a finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The simulations have shown that these ESLs originate from standing waves, attributed to the intervention of counter-propagating evanescent waves. Large numbers of ESLs can appear because of the numerous values of wave vectors k_y. The larger ESLs die out more quickly than the smaller ones in time after the source is switched off, the ESLs shrink continuously with increasing delay, and the oscillated distributions of the evanescent waves between the surfaces can also be validated. It is greatly helpful for the further comprehension on energy fluxes of evanescent waves in the LHM slab.     

基于周期结构负反射的远场增强成像研究

远场高分辨率成像是近几年来声学和光学领域的研究焦点之一, 倏逝波无法在介质中传播成为将高分辨率成像带入远场的最大困难.本文提出了一种均匀排列的散射钢柱构成的超构散射体成像方式, 利用周期结构负反射现象将倏逝波信息转化为可传播波来增强成像.有限元数值模拟被用来研究和验证该方案的可行性, 结果显示波长3.4 mm的声波可以在20 cm外的远场获得大约0.6个波长的成像分辨能力. 通过减小散射体的晶格常数有希望达到更高分辨率成像.     

Optical Trapping with Focused Surface Waves

Near-field optical trapping can be realized with focused evanescent waves that are excited at the water–glass interface due to the total internal reflection, or with focused plasmonic waves excited on the water–gold interface. Herein, the performance of these two kinds of near-field optical trapping techniques is compared using the same optical microscope configuration. Experimental results show that only a single-micron polystyrene bead can be trapped by the focused evanescent waves, whereas many beads are simultaneously attracted to the center of the excited region by focused plasmonic waves. This difference in trapping behavior is analyzed from the electric field intensity distributions of these two kinds of focused surface waves and the difference in trapping behavior is attributed to photothermal effects due to the light absorption by the gold film.     

Simple and high efficient optical trapping using a cylindrical lens and a single plane wave of incidence

We suggest a simple and high efficient method for trapping particles in the evanescent field. In this method, a single plane wave is normally incident on the cylindrical surface of a cylindrical lens and then incident on the plane surface of the lens at an angle larger than the critical angle. Multiple reflections of light within the cylindrical lens create two evanescent waves with different directions in the transmitted field. Interference of two evanescent waves comes into being a standing wave which can stably trap particles close to the top of the cylindrical lens. Based on the Rayleigh approximation, we obtain analytical expressions of optical force acting on a Rayleigh particle placed in the vicinity of the lens. We find that the trap stiffness and trap depth is dependent on the radius of the cylindrical lens, wavelength and polarization of light, and incident angle at the lens–liquid interface.     

Zur Cerenkov-Strahlung von Elektronen dicht über einem Dielektrikum

The Cerenkov radiation of an electron moving parallel to a dielectric boundary is calculated usingToraldo di Francia's expansion of the electron field in a set of evanescent waves. The radiation field is composed of these waves which are refracted at the boundary. In contrast to a previous treatment of this problem byLinhart it is shown that in addition to the TM-waves TE -waves are produced of comparable energy. The angular and frequency distribution is discussed for both types of waves.     

Phonon-polariton waves on the surface of SiC crystal

The excitation and propagation of traveling phonon-polariton waves on the surface of silicon carbide (SiC) excited by light at a frequency close to the lattice resonance have been investigated. These waves are excited in the presence of the boundary of a metal mask deposited on the crystal surface. The use of the Green’s function has been shown to provide good qualitative agreement with the observed distribution of the amplitude and phase of the field on the surface under these experimental conditions. It has been shown that only consideration of the mask boundary as an extended source of traveling surface waves, which removes the inhibition of the generation of waves in the noncoincidence of the wave vector, cannot quantitatively describe the phenomenon. The spatial resolution of the used scanning near-field optical microscope is no worse than 150 nm at a wavelength of 10 μm.     

Impact of a DC magnetic field on evanescent wave intensity amplification for a magnetocompensated antiferromagnet

The impact of a dc magnetic field on evanescent TE and TM waves at the interface of transparent media comprising a semiconductor layer and a semi-infinite antiferromagnet is investigated using Otto geometry as an example. It is shown that switching a dc magnetic field orthogonal to a sagittal plane allows maximum amplification of the intensity of propagating evanescent TM or TE waves in both a layer and in semi-infinite space. The optimum conditions correspond to the formation of a peculiar TM or TE surface wave.     

Evanescent Waves and Energy Conservation

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亚波长间距理想导体球阵列近区时间反演电磁场的快速求解

为快速求解亚波长间距分布的理想导体球阵列近区的时间反演电磁场,提出一种基于等效偶极子模型的解析分析方法.首先,通过分析球面波照射理想导体小球的散射场解析解发现,散射场可以近似等效为电磁偶极子辐射场的叠加.等效偶极子的强度与初始激励源的幅度成正比关系.通过建立不同小球等效偶极子矢量间的耦合方程组可以直接求解得到相应矢量的大小.然后,结合时间反演腔理论得到相应的时间反演并矢格林函数,继而得到小球阵列近区的时间反演场分布.最后,通过与数值仿真软件的计算结果进行对比,验证了方法的正确性及高效性.研究表明,时间反演技术结合近场亚波长间距小散射体加载能够实现超分辨率的场聚焦.     

Absorption enhancement of an electric quadrupole transition of cesium atoms in an evanescent field

We have observed for the first time reflection spectra of an electric quadrupole transition for the cesium atom (6 (2)S(1/2)-5 (2)D(5/2)) line at an angle of incidence from theta(c)-11.9 to theta(c)+107.5 mrad, where theta(c) is the critical angle for total reflection. From a comparison with the calculated absorption in the attenuated total reflection, the oscillator strengths for s and p polarizations were found to increase with an increase in the angle of incidence by a factor up to 1.5 at theta(c)+83.8 mrad and 2.4 at theta(c)+107.5 mrad, respectively, in the experiment. The dependences of the observed enhancement on the angle of incidence were in good agreement with the calculated ones for the oscillator strength of the quadrupole transition in the evanescent light.     

A nonlinear response of the BiSrCaCuO single crystal in the microwave region

Third-harmonic microwave radiation of the BiSrCaCuO superconducting single crystal was studied. Two modes of microwave field-sample interactions were observed. In a weak field, a strong increase in the intensity of radiation after switching on a constant magnetic field, a hysteresis between opposite scan directions, and different harmonic amplitudes depending on the conditions of cooling (in the presence or absence of a magnetic field) were observed. These observations can be described by the generalized Ginzburg-Landau functional taking into account higher spatial derivatives of the order parameter. At a high intensity of incident waves, a magnetic field almost did not influence third-harmonic radiation, and, accordingly, hysteresis was absent. This is likely to be evidence that, at high powers, third-harmonic radiation arises as a result of generation of vortices under the action of a high-frequency magnetic field.     

A theory of a receiving antenna in a moving isotropic plasma

We analyze the response of a dipole antenna to the noise-like and/or regular (quasimonochromatic) plasma oscillations and waves. The antenna is immersed in an isotropic plasma moving with velocity greater than the electron thermal velocity. In the case of a noise field, we calculate the squared spectral power density of the noise voltage at the input of a receiving antenna for frequencies close to the electron plasma frequency. It is shown that the main contribution to the noise is made by the radiation due to the excitation of waves at anomalous Doppler frequencies. In the case of an incident monochromatic wave, the mean square voltage at the antenna input is calculated as a function of the wave frequency and angle of arrival. It is shown that the effective antenna length can differ strongly from the geometrical length of the dipole. This fact results from the dispersion of longitudinal waves ensuring that many plane waves (a continuum, in the limiting case) contribute to the re-radiated field for a given direction of propagation of the radiation energy.     

The almost perfect lens and focusing of evanescent waves

We propose a general method for evaluating the field in the focal region of nearly perfect one-dimensional lenses, and study how evanescent waves contribute to the electric field behind subwavelength apertures. The approach presented here may give a better insight into how to shape and focus evanescent waves.     

Exceptional surface wave as a condition of the maximum increase in the intensity of an evanescent electromagnetic wave in a transparent medium

It has been shown that the condition of the maximum increase in the intensity of TM or TE evanescent electromagnetic waves at the interface between two transparent insulators in a static electric (magnetic) field simultaneously determines the dispersion law of the corresponding exceptional surface wave for which the instantaneous energy flux through the interface is zero at any time.