Yu and Team Develop Fiber-Based Plasmonic Lens

Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Miao Yu (Ph.D. ‘02) and a team of researchers from the University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) were recently recognized by Laser Focus World for their transformational research on optical-fiber-based surface plasmonic lenses. Yu and her team members – Yuxiang Liu (Ph.D. ‘10), Hua Xu, Felix Stief, and Nikolai Zhitenev - were able to superfocus light through the lens, which was installed on the end of an optical fiber. The lens possesses the ability to focus sharply “at distances of only a few microns away,” Laser Focus World notes.

When asked about the implications of the group’s lens for future research, Prof. Yu suggested that the group’s work could open several important doors in the field of plasmonics:”The research will lead to a new path for delivering high-energy light power into nanoscale volumes through light manipulation with plasmonics,” she noted. Yu also highlighted the project’s wide-ranging potential for use in other technologies: “The fiber-based surface plasmonic lens can be used in many future applications including laser nanofabrication, optical trapping, high-density optical storage, and high-resolution fluorescence sensing.”

For more information on this research, visit Laser Focus World . The team’s article “Far-field superfocusing with an optical fiber based surface plasmonic lens made of nanoscale concentric annular slits” can be found at optics information base.

Prof. Yu’s faculty profile can be viewed at faculty profiles.

Published February 22, 2012