Plasmonic nanofocusing with a metallic pyramid and an integrated C-shaped aperture

We demonstrate the design, fabrication and characterization of a near-field plasmonic nanofocusing probe with a hybrid tip-plus-aperture design. By combining template stripping with focused ion beam lithography, a variety of aperture-based near-field probes can be fabricated with high optical performance. In particular, the combination of large transmission through a C-shaped aperture aligned to the sharp apex (<10 nm radius) of a template-stripped metallic pyramid allows the efficient delivery of light--via the C-shaped aperture--while providing a nanometric hotspot determined by the sharpness of the tip itself.