Takayuki OKAMOTO and Ichirou YAMAGUCHI

The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama, 351-01 Japan

(Received November 1, 1996; Accepted January 10, 1997)

Tapping mode atomic force microscopy is used to control the tip-sample distance in near field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM), which gives both topographic and near-field images simultaneously. The evanescent waves are scattered by a vibrating silicon-nitride tip in the proximity of sample surfaces and are detected through a microscope objective. This NSOM allows the observation of opaque samples with reflection illumination. A glass grating of 1-μm pitch and an InP grating of 0.5-μm pitch are observed with a lateral resolution of 100 nm.

Key words : near-field optics, microscopy, tapping mode, atomic force microscope, scattering

*Presented at 1996 International Workshop on Interferometory (IWI '96), August 27-29, Wako, Saitama, Japan.