Subproject A is essentially inspired by numerical simulations of a group of Prof. Carlos Hernández-García, published in ACS Photonics in 2019. The goal of subproject A is the experimental generation of an isolated magnetic field, thus allowing for exclusive magneto-optical spectroscopic studies. The isolated magnetic field will be constructed by focussing an azimuthally polarized laser beam (APB) onto a thin metal film, i.e. an aperture, thereby inducing fast oscillating ring currents. These induced oscillating currents will produce a locally amplified magnetic field in the focus of the laser beam. At the same time, the electric field in this region is vanishingly small, leading to a high magnetic field/electric field contrast. In spectroscopic studies, lanthanide ions will be placed at the spot of maximum contrast and their isolated magnetic dipole transitions can be studied.
This subproject is located at the Photonics Institute, Technical University of Vienna, and is led by Dr. Alessandra Bellissimo and the PhD candidate Ms. Elizaveta Gangrskaia.