title: Enhanced light confinement in a near-field optical probe with a triangular aperture.
abstract: We present a probe concept for scanning near-field optical microscopy combining the excellent background suppression of aperture probes with the superior light confinement of apertureless probes. A triangular aperture at the tip of a tetrahedral waveguide (full taper angle approximately 90 degrees ) shows a strong field enhancement at only one rim when illuminated with light of suitable polarization. Compared to a circular aperture of equivalent size, the resolution capability is doubled without loss of brightness. For a approximately 60 nm sized triangular aperture, we measured an optical resolution <40 nm and a transmission of approximately 10(-4).
authors.affiliation: Physics Institute, Wilhelm-Klemm-Strasse 10, D-48149 Münster, Germany. naber@uni-muenster.de
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Naber
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Molenda
authors.forename: U C
authors.initials: UC
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.forename: H-J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Maas
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Höppener
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fuchs