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Updated: Jun 19, 2026

Resonance Raman Spectroscopy of Extreme Nanowires and Other 1D Systems
Published on: April 28, 2016
Using electrons as a high-resolution probe of optical modes in individual nanowires
Ilke Arslan1, Jerome K Hyun, Rolf Erni
1Sandia National Laboratories, 7011 East Avenue, Livermore, California 94550, USA. iarslan@ucdavis.edu
Abstract:
While nanowires show increasing promise for optoelectronic applications, probing the subwavelength details of their optical modes has been a challenge with light-based techniques. Here we report the excitation of dielectric optical waveguide modes in a single GaN nanowire using transition radiation generated by a 1 nm diameter electron beam. This spatially resolved study opens important gateways to probing the optical modes of more complex nanostructures, fundamental for optimization of optoelectronic device performance.
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