Propagation oscillations in the near-field response of traveling surface waves launched by metallic nanoapertures

We discuss the implications of a frequency-dependent complex dielectric function ε(ω) of a metal for the interpretation of scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) measurements in the vicinity of metallic nanoapertures. For subwavelength slits in gold films we observe distinct spatial intensity oscillations in the near-field signal for specific wavelengths in the visible spectrum. These oscillations of the SNOM signal far away from the nanoslit are ascribed to a constructive interference between the propagating surface plasmon (SP) with light scattered parallel to the gold–air interface. In these spatial SNOM-signal oscillations information about the surface plasmon dielectric function is encoded which can be extracted, for example, in surface plasmon interferometry for applications as sensors or waveguides.