Near-field imaging of out-of-plane light scattering in photonic crystal slabs

A collection scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM) is used to image the propagating of light at telecommunication wavelengths (1520-1570 nm) along photonic crystal (PC) slabs, which combine slab waveguides with in-plane PCs consisting of one- and two-dimensional gratings. The efficient out-of-plane light scattering is directly observed for both 1D and 2D gratings (period 590 nm) fabricated on silicon-on-insulator wafers and the corresponding SNOM images are presented. Using the obtained SNOM images, we analyze light intensity distributions along PC gratings measured at different wavelengths and/or distances from the sample surface.