Coherent scattering phenomena in apertureless scanning near-field fluorescence microscopy

Abstract : We study near-field fluorescence images of samples composed of aggregates of 100 nm dye-doped latex spheres. These images have been performed by a reflection Apertureless Scanning Near-field Optical Microscope (A-SNOM). We show that the near-field distribution in fluorescence A-SNOM images arises from coherent scattering phenomena between all spheres. This is a consequence of the coherent nature of the fluorescence emission of each single sphere. The results shown here are significant for all fluorescent samples characterised by a nonnegligible topography.