0000000000624542
AUTHOR
Ulrich C. Fischer
Super-Resolution Scanning Near-Field Optical Microscopy
Scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) is a method to obtain information about the optical properties of a sample at a lateral resolution below the diffraction limit of far-field microscopy. In SNOM, a light source of a dimension which is small compared to the wavelength of light and which is held at a small distance from the sample is scanned across the surface of the sample. The modulation by the sample of the light emitted from the source is recorded as a signal. As a general rule one may say that the size of the source and the distance to the sample limit the resolution of SNOM. A radiating self-emitting point dipole may be regarded as an idealized SNOM source. With such a source…
Controlling Light Confinement by Excitation of Localized Surface Plasmons
Localized surface plasmons can be used to control near-field optical phenomena in the subwavelength range. Specifically, this chaper reviews recent results which show that localized surface plasmons can confine the optical intensity down to nanoscopic dimensions. The discussion first considers how a collection-mode near-field optical microscope can observe the squeezing of the plasmon field of metallic nanostructures deposited on a flat surface. Numerical simulations then provide illustrations of the confined fields associated with nanostructures which are feasible using current microfabrication techniques. Finally, we present arguments which explain how localized surface plasmons can deliv…
Imaging of photonic nanopatterns by scanning near-field optical microscopy
We define photonic nanopatterns of a sample as images recorded by scanning near-field optical microscopy with a locally excited electric dipole as a probe. This photonic nanopattern can be calculated by use of the Green’s dyadic technique. Here, we show that scanning near-field optical microscopy images of well-defined gold triangles taken with the tetrahedral tip as a probe show a close similarity to the photonic nanopattern of this nanostructure with an electric dipole at a distance of 15 nm to the sample and tilted 45° with respect to the scanning plane.