title: Coherence and aberration effects in surface plasmon polariton imaging.
abstract: We study theoretically and experimentally coherent imaging of surface plasmon polaritons using either leakage radiation microscopy through a thin metal film or interference microscopy through a thick metal film. Using a rigorous modal formalism based on scalar Whittaker potentials, we develop a systematic analytical and vectorial method adapted to the analysis of coherent imaging involving surface plasmon polaritons. The study includes geometrical aberrations due index mismatch which played an important role in the interpretation of recent experiments using leakage radiation microscopy. We compare our theory with experiments using classical or quantum near-field scanning optical microscopy probes and show that the approach leads to a full interpretation of the recorded optical images.
authors.affiliation: Université Grenoble Alpes, Institut NEEL, F-38000 Grenoble, France and CNRS, Institut NEEL, F-38042 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Berthel
authors.affiliation: Université Grenoble Alpes, Institut NEEL, F-38000 Grenoble, France and CNRS, Institut NEEL, F-38042 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Quanbo
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Université Grenoble Alpes, Institut NEEL, F-38000 Grenoble, France and CNRS, Institut NEEL, F-38042 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Camille
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chartrand
authors.affiliation: Institut Lumière Matière, UMR5306 Université Lyon 1-CNRS, Université de Lyon, 69622 Villeurbanne cedex, France.
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bellessa
authors.affiliation: Université Grenoble Alpes, Institut NEEL, F-38000 Grenoble, France and CNRS, Institut NEEL, F-38042 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Serge
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huant
authors.affiliation: ISIS, UMR 7006, CNRS-Université de Strasbourg, 8, allée Monge, 67000 Strasbourg, France.
authors.forename: Cyriaque
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Genet
authors.affiliation: Université Grenoble Alpes, Institut NEEL, F-38000 Grenoble, France and CNRS, Institut NEEL, F-38042 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Aurélien
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Drezet