A compact light concentrator by the use of plasmonic faced folded nano-rods

We propose a compact nano-metallic structure for enhancing and concentrating far-field transmission: a faced folded nano-rod (FFR) unit, composed of two folded metallic nano-rods placed facing each other in an aperture. By analyzing local charge, field, and current distributions in the FFR unit using three-dimensional finite difference time domain (FDTD) calculation results, we show that although charge and field configurations become somewhat different depending on the polarization states of the illumination, similar current flows are formed in the FFR unit, which entail similar far-field radiation patterns regardless of the polarization states, making the FFR unit a quasi-polarization-insensitive field concentrator. We demonstrate this functionality of the FFR unit experimentally using the holographic microscopy which provides us a three-dimensional map of the complex wavefronts of optical fields emanating from the FFR unit. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America