Three-dimensional study of planar optical antennas made of split-ring architecture outperforming dipole antennas for increased field localization

Optical antennas are of fundamental importance for the strongly localizing field beyond the diffraction limit. We report that planar optical antennas made of split-ring architecture are numerically found in three-dimensional simulations to outperform dipole antennas for the enhancement of localized field intensity inside their gap regions. The computational results (finite-difference time-domain) indicate that the resulting field localization, which is of the order of many thousandfold, in the case of the split-ring resonators is at least 2 times stronger than the one in the dipole antennas resonant at the same operating wavelength, while the two antenna types feature the same gap size and tip sharpness. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America