Superfocusing and Light Confinement by Surface Plasmon Excitation Through Radially Polarized Beam

We theoretically demonstrate the possibility of obtaining nanosources through an original schema based on the generation of the radially polarized surface plasmon mode of a cylindrical metallic tip. This mode has no cutoff radius and can propagate along the tip walls until its nanometric-sized apex. Instead of radiating from the tip end, the guided mode will give rise to a nanospotlight via the well-known antenna effect. 3D calculations demonstrate that both surface plasmon-guided mode and antenna effect are directly involved in the light confinement. Near-field optical microscopy can benefit significantly from this kind of probe because the sample does not need to be directly illuminated.