FDTD simulation of tapered structure of near-field fiber probe Original Research Article

The finite-difference time-domain method was employed to simulate light propagation in tapered near-field fiber probes with several small metal apertures. By conducting large-volume simulations, including tapered metal-cladding waveguide and connected optical fiber waveguide, we illustrated the coupling between these guiding modes as well as the electric field distribution in the vicinity of the aperture. The dependence of the spatial resolution and the collection efficiency on the aperture diameter were reproduced.