Towards phonon photonics: scattering-type near-field optical microscopy reveals phonon-enhanced near-field interaction

Diffraction limits the spatial resolution in classical microscopy or the dimensions of optical circuits to about half the illumination wavelength. Scanning near-field microscopy can overcome this limitation by exploiting the evanescent near fields existing close to any illuminated object. We use a scattering-type near-field optical microscope (s-SNOM) that uses the illuminated metal tip of an atomic force microscope (AFM) to act as scattering near-field probe. The presented images are direct evidence that the s-SNOM enables optical imaging at a spatial resolution on a 10 nm scale, independent of the wavelength used (λ=633 nm and 10 μm). Operating the microscope at specific mid-infrared frequencies we found a tip-induced phonon-polariton resonance on flat polar crystals such as SiC and Si₃N₄. Being a spectral fingerprint of any polar material such phonon-enhanced near-field interaction has enormous applicability in nondestructive, material-specific infrared microscopy at nanoscale resolution. The potential of s-SNOM to study eigenfields of surface polaritons in nanostructures opens the door to the development of phonon photonics—a proposed infrared nanotechnology that uses localized or propagating surface phonon polaritons for probing, manipulating and guiding infrared light in nanoscale devices, analogous to plasmon photonics.