Transcription of optical near-fields by photoinduced structural change in single crystal metal complexes for parallel nanophotonic processing

Exploiting the unique attributes of nanometer-scaled optical near-field interactions in a completely parallel manner is important for nanophotonics for enhancing the throughput in obtaining two-dimensional information on the nanometer scale, as well as for developing more practical and easy characterization or utilization of optical near-fields. In this paper, we propose transcription of optical near-fields, whereby their effects are spatially magnified so as to be detected in optical far fields. By utilizing cyano-bridged metal complexes that exhibit photoinduced structural changes, transcription at the nanometric scale can be realized. We synthesized single crystals of such metal complexes and observed their photoinduced phase changes. We experimentally achieved photoinduced structural changes via optical near-fields, which is the fundamental process in their transcription.