The longitudinal optical field is a peculiar physical phenomenon that is always involved with the domain of near-field optics. Due to its extraordinary properties, it has recently attracted increasing attention in research and application. In this work, the longitudinal fields generated by the evanescent illumination of tightly focused, different polarized hollow beams are investigated. The focused light fields are numerically simulated according to vector diffraction theory, and their vector analysis is also carried out. The longitudinal fields on the focal plane are demonstrated experimentally using tip-enhanced scanning near-field microscopy. The simulation and experimental results show that the tightly focused radially polarized beam is suited to generating a stronger and purer longitudinal optical field at the focus.
Phase is one of the most important parameters of electromagnetic waves. It is the phase distribution that determines the propagation, reflection, refraction, focusing, divergence, and coupling features of light, and further affects the intensity distribution. In recent years, the designs of surface plasmon polariton （SPP） devices have mostly been based on the phase modulation and manipulation. Here we demonstrate a phase sensitive multi-parameter heterodyne scanning near-field opti- cal microscope （SNOM） with an aperture probe in the visible range, with which the near field optical phase and amplitude distributions can be simultaneously obtained. A novel architecture combining a spatial optical path and a fiber optical path is employed for stability and flexibility. Two kinds of typical nano-photonic devices are tested with the system. With the phase-sensitive SNOM, the phase and amplitude distributions of any nano-optical field and localized field generated with any SPP nano-structures and irregular phase modulation surfaces can be investigated. The phase distribution and the interference pattern will help us to gain a better understanding of how light interacts with SPP structures and how SPP waves generate, localize, convert, and propagate on an SPP surface. This will be a significant guidance on SPP nano-structure design and optimization.
