biostudies-literatureXiang YNCRR NIH HHSNational Institute of HealthNational Nature Science Foundation of ChinaNational Institute of General Medical SciencesNIH HHSNIGMS NIH HHS1099-1106https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC8942129biostudies-literatureUnknown10(3)When an ultrathin silver nanowire with a diameter less than 100 nm is placed on a photonic band gap structure, surface plasmons can be excited and propagate along two side-walls of the silver nanowire. Although the diameter of the silver nanowire is far below the diffraction limit, two bright lines can be clearly observed at the image plane by a standard wide-field optical microscope. Simulations suggest that the two bright lines in the far-field are caused by the unique phase distribution of plasmons on the two side-walls of the silver nanowire. Combining with the sensing ability of surface plasmons to its environment, the configuration reported in this work is capable of functioning as a sensing platform to monitor environmental changes in the near-field region of this ultrathin nanowireNanophotonicsFar-field optical imaging of surface plasmons with a subdiffraction limited separation.PMC8942129S10RR026370S10 RR026370R21 GM12956111774330R01 GM125976S10OD19975S10 OD019975Zhang DChen JWang RLakowicz JRZhan QXiang YTang XfalseFar-field optical imaging of surface plasmons with a subdiffraction limited separation.When an ultrathin silver nanowire with a diameter less than 100 nm is placed on a photonic band gap structure, surface plasmons can be excited and propagate along two side-walls of the silver nanowire. Although the diameter of the silver nanowire is far below the diffraction limit, two bright lines can be clearly observed at the image plane by a standard wide-field optical microscope. Simulations suggest that the two bright lines in the far-field are caused by the unique phase distribution of plasmons on the two side-walls of the silver nanowire. Combining with the sensing ability of surface plasmons to its environment, the configuration reported in this work is capable of functioning as a sensing platform to monitor environmental changes in the near-field region of this ultrathin nanowire2021-01-01T00:00:00Z2021 Feb2025-04-05T15:58:08.743Z2025-04-05T15:58:08.743ZS-EPMC89421293533080910.1515/nanoph-2020-0500