Unidirectional scattering exploited transverse displacement sensor with tunable measuring range

Localizing nanoscale objects using nanophotonic near-field transducers

“…The aim is to tailor the near-field distribution such that scattering from the transducer is maximally sensitive to the position of the object. Indeed, related approaches have been used in propagating illumination beams, where the engineering of a complex structured excitation field results in position-dependent scattering, to achieve successful localization of a single scatterer with subwavelength precision [11][12][13][14][15]. Besides intensity, using additional degrees of freedom such as phase, polarization and wavelength enables encoding of even more information in radiation patterns.…”

“…So unlike s-NSOM, where spatial information is obtained from consecutive measurements while rasterscanning a detecting element, here we exploit the complexity and connection of near and far fields to obtain spatial information from a single measurement. Indeed, methods based on far-field scattering signals have been developed to localize a single scatterer in a carefully tailored illumination beam with subwavelength resolution [11][12][13][14][15]. In such a framework, one would expect the sensitivity, resolution and field of view to be controllable by the design of the complex nanophotonic scattering structures in terms of geometry and mode structure, as shown in Figure 1.…”

Towards fully integrated photonic displacement sensors

“…Therefore, the presented experiments represent an important step toward fully integrated optical devices even beyond displacement sensing. More complex designs might be implemented to build chip-scale combined wavelength 38 , polarization [39][40][41] , position [10][11][12]42 , and wavefront (tilt) 43 sensors. The realization of an integrated device, capable of sensing multiple degrees of freedom of an external light source simultaneously, might become relevant for applications like sample stabilization in microscopy 6 , adaptive optics, and acceleration sensors.…”

“…Recently a technique for two-dimensional localization based on position-dependent directional scattering of a single dipolar nanoantenna has been demonstrated [10][11][12] . This transverse Kerker scattering of a nanoantenna approach is based on the tailored excitation of so-called Huygens dipoles 13,14 , combinations of interfering electric and magnetic dipoles that result in the conceptually highest directivity possible for single dipolar emitters 15,16 .…”

Broadband transverse displacement sensing of silicon hollow nanodisk under focused radial polarization illumination in the near-infrared region

“…Due to the inhomogeneous intensity distribution of electric and magnetic fields in the focal volume, the relative magnitude of the longitudinal ED and transverse MD modes can be tuned by the antenna's position. Therefore, lateral scattering is highly dependent on the antenna's position relative to the focus, and high-precision displacement sensing can be realized by detecting the variation of lateral scattering as a function of the antenna's position [22][23][25][26][27][28] . It has been experimentally demonstrated that based on lateral scattering from a silicon spherical nanoparticle under cylindrical vector beam illumination, displacements down to a few angstroms can be resolved [23] .…”