Laser near-field microscopy

Abstract

Three techniques of optical near-field microscopy are considered. In one of them a probe in the form of a nanosphere interacts with a solid surface. The second technique is a probeless one based on the Brewster reflection of a laser beam from the surface of a non-absorptive dielectric in the presence of foreign atoms at it. The third technique is based on the interaction of a probe molecule at the tip of a needle-shaped light guide with a metal surface under the conditions of enhanced Raman scattering. Optical dimensional and near-field resonances are shown to be of significant importance in the optics of nanostructure systems and in the near-field optical microscopy techniques. These resonances are formed under the interaction of atoms and nanoparticles in the optical radiation field. The theoretical description of the techniques of near-field optical microscopy is based on the nonlocal equations together with the constitutive ones. The form of the latter depends on the type of boundary-value problem. The theory of the transition layer is presented, which allows one to explain the numerous experiments on the Brewster reflection of light and accordingly to evaluate the potentialities of the theoretical approach applied in this review.