Polarization contrast in reflection near-field optical microscopy with uncoated fibre tips |
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Authors: | S I Bozhevolnyi W Langbein & J M Hvam |
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Affiliation: | Mikroelektronik Centret, Technical University of Denmark, Building 345 east, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark |
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Abstract: | 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. |
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Keywords: | Contrast mechanisms near-field optics polarization contrast resolution scanning near-field optical microscopy |
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