Tuning the focus of a plasmonic lens by the incident angle

We report the experimental realization of tuning the focus position of a plasmonic lens by adjusting the angle of the incident light similar to conventional lenses. A circular slit in silver film acts as both a surface plasmon polariton coupler and a plasmonic focusing lens. At small incident angles, the plasmonic lens has a very good focus with the position depending only on the angle of the incident beam. Numerical simulations of the focusing properties, including polarization dependence, agree well with experimental observations. This tunable plasmonic lens can be used in nanoscale photonics, biological sensing, and manipulation. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.