Bowtie-shaped nanoaperture: a modal study
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 10, 2026

Assembly, Tuning and Use of an Apertureless Near Field Infrared Microscope for Protein Imaging
Published on: November 25, 2009
I A Ibrahim1, M Mivelle, T Grosjean
1Institut Franche-Comté Electronique, Mécanique, Thermique et Optique-Sciences et Technologies (FEMTO-ST), UMR 6174 CNRS, Département d'Optique P. M. Duffieux, Université de Franche-Comté, 25030 Besançon Cedex, France.
Abstract:
Using the N-order finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method, we show that optical resonances of the bowtie nanoaperture (BNA) are due to the combination of a guided mode inside the aperture and Fabry-Perot modes along the metal thickness. The resonance of lower energy, which leads to the well-known light confinement in the gap zone, occurs at the cutoff wavelength of the fundamental guided mode. No plasmon resonance is directly involved in the generation of the light hot spot. We also define a straightforward relationship between the resonance wavelengths of the BNA and its geometrical parameters. This brings a simple tool for the optimization of the BNA design.

