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Polarization contrast in reflection near‐field optical microscopy with uncoated fibre tips
Author(s) -
Bozhevolnyi S. I.,
Langbein W.,
Hvam J. M.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of microscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.569
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2818
pISSN - 0022-2720
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2818.1999.00502.x
Subject(s) - optics , near field scanning optical microscope , materials science , microscopy , polarization (electrochemistry) , microscope , optical microscope , wavelength , semiconductor , near field optics , dielectric , near and far field , wafer , image resolution , optoelectronics , resolution (logic) , bright field microscopy , physics , chemistry , scanning electron microscope , artificial intelligence , computer science
Using cross‐hatched, patterned semiconductor surfaces and round 20‐nm‐thick gold pads on semiconductor wafers, we investigate the imaging characteristics of a reflection near‐field optical microscope with an uncoated fibre tip for different polarization configurations and light wavelengths. It is shown that cross‐polarized detection allows one to effectively suppress far‐field components in the detected signal and to realize imaging of optical contrast on the sub‐wavelength scale. The sensitivity window of our microscope, i.e. the scale on which near‐field optical images represent mainly optical contrast, is found to be ≈100 nm for light wavelengths in the visible region. We demonstrate imaging of near‐field components of a dipole field and purely dielectric contrast (related to well‐width fluctuations in a semiconductor quantum well) with a spatial resolution of ≈100 nm. The results obtained show that such a near‐field technique can be used for polarization‐sensitive imaging with reasonably high spatial resolution and suggest a number of applications for this technique.