Reproducible optical fiber tips for photon scanning tunneling microscopy with very small (>5°) cone angle

Sharp optical fiber tips for photon scanning tunneling microscopes (PSTMs) have been fabricated by employing a new alternative technique for etching multimode optical fibers. The tip diameter is less than 30 mm, while the cone full-angle can be as sharp as 3/spl deg/. To the knowledge of the authors, such tips are the sharpest reported up to now. Measurements, with 19 tips, of the evanescent wave decay distance produced by frustrated reflection of light on a same sample, show good reproducibility. Furthermore, the PSTM images, taken with the new tips, are very sharp and fit with images of the same sample obtained with an atomic force microscope (AFM).

Kerr and Faraday Rotations of Magneto-Optical Multilayers under the Condition of Total Internal Reflection

Magneto-optical effects in multilayers illuminated by total internal reflection

This paper describes the magneto-optical effects of metallic multilayers under the condition of total internal reflection. In the framework of Green’s dyadic technique, we detail a practical and at time-consuming scheme to compute accurately the optical properties of anisotropic multilayers deposited on a substrate. We present numerical simulations which account for the variation of the angle of incidence at a fixed wavelength and for the variation of the wavelength at fixed angle of incidence. The Kerr rotation is found to increase significantly around the critical angle for total reflection. We also discuss the importance of plasmon effects in the structure of the Kerr rotation spectra. @…

Characterization of optogeometric parameters of optical fibers by near-field scanning probe microscopies

The combination of atomic-force and scanning-near-field optical microscopies is useful for characterizing the physical and optical parameters of optoelectronic devices. With a commercial atomic-force microscope adapted to perform scanning-near-field optical measurements, we succeed in determining core diameters, localizing the erbium doping zone, and analyzing propagation modes in erbium-doped and multimodal optical fibers.

A Novel Atom Trap Based on Carbon Nanotubes

Subwavelength mapping of surface photonic states

We show that the spectral tailoring of optical local density of states (LDOS) may be achieved by lithographically designed nanostructures and that the subwavelength mapping of the spectral variation of the optical LDOS is feasible by varying the driving frequency of the effective dipole used in an illumination mode scanning near-field optical microscope.

Imaging the Local Density of States of Optical Corrals

International audience; This paper reports the experimental observation, at optical frequencies, of the electromagnetic local density of states established by nanostructures corresponding to the recently introduced concept of optical corral [G. Colas des Francs et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 4950 (2001)]. The images obtained by a scanning near-field optical microscope under specific operational conditions are found in agreement with the theoretical maps of the optical local density of states. A clear functionality of detection by the scanning near-field optical microscope is thereby identified since the theoretical maps are computed without including any specific tip model.