Photoluminescence of GaAs Tip Apex Excited by Evanescent Wave

Abstract

To characterize the optical properties of a semiconductor tip apex or semiconductor nanoparticles attached to a tip apex, an experimental setup to detect the photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the specimens excited by the evanescent wave was constructed. The tip-prism surface distance dependency of the PL spectra was observed by means of a prism covered with conducting thin films which were used to define the origin of the separation by detecting the tunneling current. It was demonstrated that the PL intensity exponentially depends upon the separation.