Leakage radiation microscope for observation of non-transparent samples

We describe a leakage radiation microscope technique that can be used to extend the leakage radiation microscopy to optically non-transparent samples. In particular, two experiments are presented, first to demonstrate that acquired images with our configuration correspond to the leakage radiation phenomenon and second, to show possible applications by directly imaging a plasmonic structure that previously could only be imaged with a near-field scanning optical microscope. It is shown that the measured surface plasmon wavelength and propagation length agree with theoretically-calculated values. This configuration opens the possibility to study important effects where samples are optically non-transparent, as in plasmonic cavities and single hole plasmonic excitation, without the use of time-consuming near-field scanning optical microscopy.