Near-Field Microscopy and Near-Field Optics

The following sections are included:

• Preface

• How to read this book

• Contents

This first chapter deals with the notions of imaging systems, vision, object and image in a historical context.

The notion of non-propagating field is treated in this chapter not only in the light of near-field microscopy but also in a more general concept of non-emitting charge distribution.

This chapter deals with evanescent fields either generated by total internal reflection or by diffraction. The particular case of plasmons is mentioned.

This chapter presents a few methods recently developed to describe accurately the interaction of light with sub-wavelength structures. Most of these methods are derived from Maxwell's equations the basis of which are given in the theory appendix.

This chapter points out the complexity of inverse diffraction and inverse problem both in the far-field and in the near-field.

In this chapter we will analyse the general problem of quality criteria in near-field microscopy. We will successively study the notions of degrees of freedom^†, noise^†, artifacts^† and resolution^†, insisting on the particularities and peculiarities of near-field microscopy.

This chapter is mainly a description of the different solutions proposed for emitting or collecting (or even for perturbing) the light field in the near-field zone.

This chapter deals with the different components constituting any near-field optical microscope. Emphasis is put on the specific problems of near-field optical microscopes.

In the previous analyses, emphasis has been put on the tip itself regardless of the working condition of the microscope itself. We will describe in this chapter the main configurations according to the illumination conditions. According to this classification, near-field microscopes can be divided into four principal categories:

• the transmission microscopes working in emission or collection,

• the reflection microscopes,

• the internal reflection microscopes,

• the hybrid microscopes.

This chapter deals with pre and post-processing the role of which are to improve the image quality. Some processings are specific to scanning microscopes, others to near-field microscopes.

This chapter deals with a few examples of potential applications from spatial nano-characterization to local spectroscopy.

The following sections are included:

• Appendix A Basis of Optics

• Nomenclature

• List of Acronyms

• Glossary

• Index

• Author Index

• Bibliography