Digital Heterodyne Holography Reveals the Non-Quasi-Static Scattering Behaviour of Transversally Coupled Nanodisk Pairs

We reconstruct the full three-dimensional scattering pattern of longitudinal and transverse modes in pairs of coupled gold nanodisks using digital heterodyne holography. Near-field simulations prove that, in our experimental conditions, the induced dipoles in the longitudinal mode are in phase while...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sarah Y. Suck, Sébastien Bidault, Nicolas Bonod, Stéphane Collin, Nathalie Bardou, Yannick De Wilde, Gilles Tessier
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hindawi Limited 2012-01-01
Series:International Journal of Optics
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/532576
Description
Summary:We reconstruct the full three-dimensional scattering pattern of longitudinal and transverse modes in pairs of coupled gold nanodisks using digital heterodyne holography. Near-field simulations prove that, in our experimental conditions, the induced dipoles in the longitudinal mode are in phase while they are nearly in opposite phase for the transverse mode. The scattering efficiency of the two modes is of the same order of magnitude, which goes against the common belief that antisymmetric transverse modes are “dark.” The analysis of the reconstructed hologram in the Fourier plane allows us to estimate the angular scattering pattern for both excited modes. In particular, the antisymmetric transverse mode scatters light mostly into one half-plane, demonstrating that the quasi-static approximation breaks down in nanodisk pairs even for an interparticle distance lower than λ/4.
ISSN:1687-9384
1687-9392