Near-field optical microscope working on TEM wave

Abstract

A new type of probe for the near-field optical microscope incorporating metallic strips on the surface of a dielectric cone (microstrip probe) is proposed. The numerical simulation has shown a significant improvement in optical efficiency for this type of probe compared with the conventional probe. It was found theoretically that scanning near-field optics with the microstrip probe is promising for applications in optical information recording and can be employed as optical heating elements in magnetic information recording. Application of the microstrip probe in nonlinear optical research of nanoscaled medium is possible due to strong electric and magnetic field near the aperture and weak dependence of its transmission parameters on the frequency of the incident beam. A model for the near-field strip probe with cleaved apex is proposed. A method is presented to control the distance between the probe apex and sample surface based on mechanical vibrations of the cleaved apex excited by applying voltage pulses. The oscillation amplitude and attenuation can be determined by measuring the amplitude of microwave radiation excited by oscillations of charges with opposite sign at the probe apex. The investigation was based on mathematical models and experiments necessary to confirm the theoretical prediction.