Electro-optic detection of subwavelength terahertz spot sizes in the near field of a metal tip

TLDR

The study presents a method to achieve subwavelength resolution in terahertz time‑domain imaging. The method uses a sharp copper tip to concentrate the THz field, which is electro‑optically measured in a (100) GaP crystal while raster‑scanning the tip across the surface. Raster scanning revealed an 18 µm spot size (λ/110 at 0.15 THz) and indicates the setup could achieve micron‑scale resolution.

Abstract

We report on a method to obtain a subwavelength resolution in terahertz time-domain imaging. In our method, a sharp copper tip is used to locally distort and concentrate the THz electric field. The distorted electric field, present mainly in the near field of the tip, is electro-optically measured in an (100) oriented GaP crystal. By raster scanning the tip along the surface of the crystal, we find the smallest THz spot size of 18 μm for frequencies from 0.1 to 2.5 THz. For our peak frequency of 0.15 THz, this corresponds to a resolution of λ/110. Our setup has the potential to reach a resolution down to a few μm.