Near-Field Optical Spectroscopy: Enhancing the Light Budget

The near-field scanning optical microscope, or NSOM, provides spectroscopists with resolution beneath the diffraction limit. In the NSOM, an optical aperture smaller than the wavelength λ of the probe radiation is scanned in the near-field of a sample. Pixels are serially gathered and then constituted as a computer-generated image. Spectroscopic NSOM investigations demonstrating sub-λ, resolution include studies of photoluminescence, Raman spectroscopy, and single molecule fluorescence. Results of nano-Raman spectroscopy on semiconducting Rb-doped KTP are shown in figure 1. Figure la is a topographic image of the sample showing a square Rb-doped region in an otherwise undoped sample. Figure lc is a NSOM region of the corner of the doped region, and figure lb is an image of the same region taken within a Raman line. While these data do provide sub-λ spectroscopic resolution and other interesting features, the weak signal provided by current NSOM technologies and the low quantum efficiency of the Raman effect necessitated development of a very low-drift microscope and inconveniently long collection times.