New avenues for confocal surface plasmon microscopy

Abstract

The principal strength of the confocal microscope for biological imaging lies its ability to detect only light that emerges at close to the focal plane, eliminating light originating from different focal planes. We discuss how this confocal property has considerable advantage in the detection of surface plasmons, since it defines the path of the detected radiation, thus greatly improving the lateral resolution and also the measurement precision. In this paper we show how a spatial light modulator in the back focal plane allows one to generate a whole range of new imaging properties that confer great flexibility on the system. The technique allows one to measure surface wave velocity, surface wave attenuation and perform rapid single shot measurement and effect common path operation.