Microscope Images
Credit: UNM UCAM Newsroom
(l.) The scanning electron micrscope image shows two gold nanobars with about a 10 nm gap between them. The near-field optical image (r.) shows the localization of the electric field between the two gold nanostructures when the nanostructures are excited with light. The intensity of the localized field can be 100 – 1,000 times higher than the intensity of the excitation light. As a result, when molecules or other semiconductor materials are placed in the concentrated electric field, they experience much stronger interaction than they would in the absence of the plasmonic nanostructures.
