Far field scattering by a waveguide-coupled nanowire
Résumé
We study both experimentally and numerically far-field radiation patterns of single metallic nanowires coupled to weak confined optical waveguides. The radiation pattern resulting from the interaction of the nanowire and the optical mode depends strongly on the mode properties (polarization and wavenumber) and on the antenna properties (material and size). To investigate these phenomena we compare the electric far-field distributions computed with different numerical methods (Green's tensor technique, rigourous coupled wave method, Fourier modal method). We also compare simulated results to experimental measurements obtained over a large spectral domain ranging from 400 nm to 1000 nm. This study should be useful for optimizing nanostructured photonic circuits elements.