0000000000470416
AUTHOR
N. Cerre
Photon Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Reflection Scanning Microscopy
The Photon Scanning Tunneling Microscope (PSTM) is the photon analogue to the Electron Scanning Tunneling Microscope (ESTM). It uses the evanescent field due to the total internal reflection (TIR) of a light beam in a prism modulated by a sample attached to the prism. The exponential decay of the evanescent field is characterized by the penetration depth dp and depends on the angle of incidence θ, the wavelength and polarization of the incident beam. Changes in intensity are monitored by a probe tip scanned over the surface, and the data are processed to generate an image of the sample. Images produced by a prototype instrument are shown to have a vertical resolution of about 3 A and a late…
Reflection scanning microscopy.
To image nontransparent samples we have utilized a special type of scanning-probe microscope that is referred to here as a reflection scanning microscope. The reflection scanning microscope provides a method for producing a scanned point light source as well as a system for collecting the light that is reflected by the sample. The system, which uses an optical fiber coupler, is easily installed on an existing photon scanning tunneling microscope. A calculation of the coupling coefficient between the natural propagation mode of the optical fiber and the light that is reflected by the sample is presented along with a comparison between calculated and measured values of the intensity of the li…