Large near-to-far field spectral shifts for terahertz resonances

Abstract

We have performed far-field extinction measurements and near electric field measurements on gold bowtie antennas resonant at THz frequencies. These measurements show a very large shift between the resonant frequencies of the near-field and the far-field spectra. We use the established damped-driven harmonic oscillator model for resonators to model the far-field response of the antennas from the near-field spectrum and show that there is a large discrepancy between the predicted and measured far-field response. We were able to explain this discrepancy by improving the oscillator model with a Fano model. This large shift makes the prediction of the near-field response of resonant structures at THz frequencies very imprecise, provided that only information of the far-field response is available and establishes the necessity of measuring near fields for a correct and accurate characterization of these structures.