Interferometric evanescent wave excitation of nano-antenna for ultra-sensitive displacement and phase metrology

We propose a method for ultra-sensitive displacement and phase metrology based on the interferometric evanescent wave excitation of nano-antennas. We show that with a proper choice of nano-antenna, tiny displacements or relative phase variations can be converted into sensitive scattering direction changes in the Fourier $k$-space. These changes stem from the strong position dependence of the imaginary Poynting vector orientation within interfering evanescent waves. Using strongly-evanescent standing waves, high sensitivity is achieved in the nano-antennas zero scattering direction, which varies linearly with displacement over a long range. With weakly-evanescent wave interference, even higher sensitivity to tiny displacement or phase changes can be reached around chosen location. The high sensitivity of the proposed method can form the basis for many applications.