Plasmonic transfer of near-field light from subwavelength objects through a gold-nanorod chain

Plasmonics-based nanoimaging techniques have recently attracted significant attention owing to their ability to confine light to the nanoscale for super-resolution imaging. A recent report has theoretically predicted that a plasmonic nanolens, a well-designed array of metallic nanorod chains, can produce a magnified color image of subwavelength objects through a plasmonic transfer of near-field light as a new class of nanoimaging technique. In this study, we fabricate a gold-nanorod chain through a self-assembly method to experimentally validate this concept, and observe the plasmonic transfer of near-field light from subwavelength objects, which demonstrates the significant potential of plasmonic nanolens for super-resolution imaging. (C) 2018 The Japan Society of Applied Physics