Surface-wave-enabled darkfield aperture for background suppression during weak signal detection.

ABSTRACT: Sensitive optical signal detection can often be confounded by the presence of a significant background, and, as such, predetection background suppression is substantively important for weak signal detection. In this paper, we present a novel optical structure design, termed surface-wave-enabled darkfield aperture (SWEDA), which can be directly incorporated onto optical sensors to accomplish predetection background suppression. This SWEDA structure consists of a central hole and a set of groove pattern that channels incident light to the central hole via surface plasmon wave and surface-scattered wave coupling. We show that the surface wave component can mutually cancel the direct transmission component, resulting in near-zero net transmission under uniform normal incidence illumination. He

SUBMITTER: Zheng G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2889114 | biostudies-literature | 2010 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature