Near-Field Optical Effect of a Core-Shell Nanostructure In Proximity to a Flat Surface

Abstract

We provide an analytical solution to study the near field optical effect of a core-shell nanostructure in proximity to a flat surface, within quasi-static approximation. The distribution of electrostatic potential and field enhancement in this complex geometry are obtained by solving a set of linear equations. This analytical result can be applied to a wide range of systems associated with near field optics and surface plasmon polaritons. As an illustration of the power of this technique, we study the field attenuation effect of oxidized shell in a silver tip in near field scanning microscope. The thickness of oxidized layer can be monitored by measuring the light intensity. In addition, we propose a novel method to detect local temperature with spatial resolution down to nm scale, based on a Ag-Au core-shell structure.