Fabrication of Cantilevered Tip-on-Aperture Probe for Enhancing Resolution of Scanning Near-Field Optical Microscopy System

Abstract

The scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) system achieves a resolution beyond the diffraction limit of the conventional optical microscopy system by subwavelength aperture probe scanning. The problem is that the light throughput decreases very markedly with decreasing aperture diameter. Apertureless scanning near-field optical microscopes obtain a much better resolution by concentrating light field near the tip apex. However, far-field illumination by a focused laser beam generates a large background scattering signal. Both disadvantages are overcome using the tip-on-aperture (TOA) approach presented in previous works. In this study, the fabrication of a cantilevered tip for SNOM and scanning force microscopy (SFM) has been described. The nano-probes are batch-fabricated on a silicon wafer. The Si3N4 has excellent optical transparent characteristics, higher Young's modulus and yield strength so that it should provide a better probe for SNOM and SFM. For this purpose, a Si3N4 thin film was deposited using low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD). To form the aperture and TOA in the probe, we applied focused ion beam (FIB) machining at the end of the sharpened tip. For verification of the efficiency of the micromachined TOA probes, numerical analysis using the finite-difference time domain (FDTD) analysis and experimental measurement using an inverted microscope based the SNOM system were performed.