Microfabricated silicon dioxide cantilever with subwavelength aperture |
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| Authors: | Y Mitsuoka T Niwa S Ichihara K Kato H Muramatsu K Nakajima M Shikida† K Sato† |
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| Affiliation: | Seiko Instruments Inc., 563 Takatsuka-Shinden, Matsudo-shi, Chiba 270-2222, Japan;Department of Micro System Engineering, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8603, Japan |
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| Abstract: | We have developed a microfabricated SiO2 cantilever with subwavelength aperture for scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM), to overcome the disadvantages of conventional optical fibre probes such as low reproducibility and low optical throughput. The microcantilever, which has a SiO2 cantilever and an aperture tip near the end of the cantilever, is fabricated in a reproducible batch process. The circular aperture with a diameter of 100–150 nm is formed by a focused ion-beam technique. Incident light is directly focused on the aperture from the rear side of the cantilever using a focusing objective, and high optical throughput (10?2 to 10?3) is obtained. The microcantilever can be operated as a SNOM probe in contact mode or in dynamic mode. |
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| Keywords: | Aperture cantilever focused ion beam microfabrication scanning near-field optical microscopy SiO2 |
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