Phase resolved near-field imaging of propagating waves in infrared tapered slot antennas

    Authors

    L. A. Florence; E. C. Kinzel; R. L. Olmon; J. C. Ginn; M. B. Raschke;G. D. Boreman

    Comments

    Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Infrared Phys. Technol.

    Keywords

    Tapered slot antenna; Infrared antenna; End fire antenna; Broadband; antenna; Near field imaging; TRANSMISSION-LINES; ENERGY; Instruments & Instrumentation; Optics; Physics, Applied

    Abstract

    Tapered slot antennas (TSAs) consist of a planar non-resonant structure which couples incident radiation to a propagating waveguide mode. They are commonly used at microwave and radio frequencies because they are fundamentally broadband and have small profiles. Because of their planar layout and broadband response they have recently been scaled to infrared frequencies where they have advantages for sensing and energy harvesting. We use scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) to study the mode transformation of two types of TSA operating in the thermal infrared (lambda(0) = 10.6 mu m) with respect to electric field amplitude and phase. The results agree well with simulation showing both the phase reversal across the tapered slot and the traveling of wave fronts along the tapered slot, yet they also reveal high sensitivity of device performance to inhomogeneities in the geometry or illumination. This study will aid future design and analysis of practical non-resonant antennas operating at optical and infrared frequencies. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

    Journal Title

    Infrared Physics & Technology

    Volume

    55

    Issue/Number

    6

    Publication Date

    1-1-2013

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    449

    Last Page

    453

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000311023500001

    ISSN

    1350-4495

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