Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
practical experiments in the near future. As experiments have
shown the ability to focus vortex electron beams down below
the nanometer scale (Schattschneider et al., 2012), it is expected
that high-resolutionmapping ofdifferentnanoplasmonicstructures
will be undertaken to visualize, for the first time, their magnetic
response at the nanometer scale.
12.4.5
Summary
In this section, we have reviewed how fast electrons lose their
energy to metal nanostructures and thereby allow for a local probe
of the plasmonic resonances of those nanostructures. With the
advent of vortex electron beams, which possess orbital angular
momentum, it is possible to have a similar interaction with the
magnetic response of metal nanostructures, and thereby probe
magnetic plasmons at the nanometer scale.
12.5 Outlook
Nanoplasmonics uses the nanostructuring of metals to control the
flowoflightatthenanometerscale.Itispossibletoachieveastrong
electric and magnetic response from nanostructured metals in
visibletoinfraredregime,andthisishighlydesiredforapplications,
especially those involving metamaterials, such as perfect lensing.
Although EELS has long been used to probe the plasmon, the
advent of vortex electron beams opens up the possibility, for
the first time, of probing the magnetic plasmon. With this new
capability, a greater understanding of the microscopic response of
nanoplasmonicstructures,includingthemagneticresponse,maybe
achieved.
References
1. Akimov,A.,Mukherjee,A.,Yu,C.,Chang,D.,Zibrov,A.,Hemmer,P.,Park,H.
and Lukin, M. (2007). Generation of single optical plasmons in metallic
nanowires coupled toquantum dots,
Nature
450
, 7168, pp. 402-406.
