Apertureless scanning near-field optical microscopy: numerical modeling of the lock-in detection

Radouane Fikri (1) , Thomas Grosges (1) , Dominique Barchiesi (1)

1 LNIO - Laboratoire de Nanotechnologie et d'Instrumentation Optique

Apertureless scanning near-field optical microscopy (ASNOM) enables one to reach high lateral resolution and to induce localized near-field effects. Experimentally, the vibration of the probe and a lock-in detection are frequently used to increase the signal-to-noise-ratio. In the present work, a finite-element method (FEM) is used to show, through numerical simulations, that for a realistic model in ASNOM it is necessary to include the material and geometrical properties of the setup, the scan, the probe vibration and the lock-in detection. A comparison between numerical results and experimental data is presented and discussed.

Keywords: Scanning near-field optical microscopes; Finite-element method; Computer modeling and simulation; Diffraction and scattering; Classical electromagnetism; Maxwell equations

Domains: Optics / Photonic; Electromagnetism; Modeling and Simulation

Radouane Fikri, Thomas Grosges, Dominique Barchiesi. Apertureless scanning near-field optical microscopy: numerical modeling of the lock-in detection. Optics Communications, 2004, 232 (1-6), pp.15-23. ⟨10.1016/j.optcom.2003.12.027⟩. ⟨hal-02295964⟩