[OPTICAL REVIEW Vol. 3, No. 6B (1996) 447-449]

Polarization-Dependent Contrast of Near-Field and Far-Field-Propagating Signal Intensities in C-Mode Scanning Near-Field Optical Microscopy/ Photon Scanning Tunneling Microscopy*

Kiyoshi KOBAYASHI1 and Osaaki WATANUKI2

1IBM Japan Ltd. and Information Technology Solutions, 1623-14, Shimotsuruma, Yamato, Kanagawa, 242 Japan, 2Senshu University, 2-1-1, Higashimita, Tama, Kanagawa, 214-80 Japan

(Received August 17, 1996; Accepted August 30, 1996)

A recent paper by Naya et al. (Opt. Commun. 124 (1996) 9) presented high-resolution imaging results obtained in the sub-100-nm range with a collection-mode near-field optical microscope. The images exhibit apparent polarization dependence. A simple modeling and calculation based on the experiment, using a semi-microscopic and perturbative approach, showed that the far-field-propagating signal intensity converted from the near-field can qualitatively explain the polarization dependence of the experiment if the taper angle of the probe tip is taken into account.

Key words : near-field optics, SNOM, photon STM, polarization, contrast, taper angle, modeling, simulation

*This paper was originally presented at the first Asia-Pacific Workshop on Near Field Optics, which was held on August 17 and 18, 1996 at Seoul Education and Culture Center, Seoul, Korea, organized by Condensed Matter Research Institute, Seoul National University.

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