Near-field optical imaging with a nanotip grown on fibered polymer microlens
Abstract
Pointed carbon nanotips have been deposited on polymer microlensed optical fibers and used as
highly resolving scattering nanoprobes. Optical characterizations supported by simulations
demonstrate an efficient spatial filtering where the light scattered by the carbon tip is selectively
coupled into the fiber core. As an application, a channel surface waveguide was characterized in
collection mode. A special attention was given to the polarization response, and the s-polarized
field is found to be slightly favored due to the detection direction. The proposed hybrid probe’s
robustness, the symmetric detection and design flexibility it offers, makes it an attractive tool for
nano-optics.