Fehmi Yasin, Westminster College
Physics
It has long been a goal to achieve higher spatial resolution in optical imaging and spectroscopy. Recently, a concept emerged that merges optical microscopy with scanning probe microscopy, increasing the spatial resolution of optical imaging beyond the diffraction limit. The scanning probe tip’s optical antenna properties and the local near-field coupling between its apex and the sample allows for few nanometer optical spatial resolution (Atkin, Berweger, Jones, and Raschke 2012). We investigate a nano-imaging technique, known as scattering scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) and image several different materials using said technique. We report our data and provide potential paths for future work.