title: Propagation and diffraction of locally excited surface plasmons.
abstract: With the use of optical near-field techniques, it is now possible to excite or observe surface plasmons with high lateral resolution. A theoretical study is presented of surface plasmon excitation by near-field optical probes and the influence of well-defined structures on surface plasmon propagation and surface plasmon detection in the far field. The generation and the diffraction of the surface plasmon is calculated by using a theoretical scheme founded upon a first-order perturbation expansion of the Rayleigh-Fano method. A very good agreement is obtained between numerical and experimental results. The theoretical tools used should prove a useful guideline for future experiments of nanooptics with surface plasmons.
authors.affiliation: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France. fbaida@univ-fcomte.fr
authors.forename: F I
authors.initials: FI
authors.lastname: Baida
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Van Labeke
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bouhelier
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Huser
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Pohl