title: Near-field Moiré effect mediated by surface plasmon polariton excitation.
abstract: We have demonstrated a surface plasmon polariton mediated optical Moiré effect by inserting a silver slab between two subwavelength gratings. Enhancement of the evanescent fields by the surface plasmon excitations on the silver slab leads to a remarkable contrast improvement in the Moiré fringes from two subwavelength gratings. Numerical calculations, which agree very well with the experimental observation of evanescent-wave Moiré fringes, elucidate the crucial role of the surface plasmon polaritons. The near-field Moiré effect has potential applications to extend the existing Moiré techniques to subwavelength characterization of nanostructures.
authors.affiliation: NSF Nano-scale Science and Engineering Center, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-1740, USA. Zhaowei@berdeley.edu
authors.forename: Zhaowei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Stéphane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Durant
authors.forename: Hyesog
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.forename: Yuri
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Pikus
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang