title: Nanoscale resolved infrared probing of crystal structure and of plasmon-phonon coupling.
abstract: We show that slight variations of a crystal lattice cause significant spectral modifications of phonon-polariton resonant near-field interaction between polar semiconductor crystals and a scanning metal tip. Exploiting the effect for near-field imaging a SiC polytype boundary, we establish infrared mapping of crystal structure and crystal defects at 20 nm spatial resolution (lambda/500). By spectroscopic probing of doped SiC polytypes, we find that phonon-polariton resonant near-field interaction is also sensitive to electronic properties due to plasmon-phonon coupling in the crystals.
authors.affiliation: Nano-Photonics Group, Max-Planck-Institut für Biochemie & Center for Nanoscience, Am Klopferspitz 18, 82152 Martinsried, Germany.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Huber
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ocelic
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Taubner
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hillenbrand
mesh_terms: D003461:Crystallography / Q000379:methods*; D017097:Electric Impedance; D008422:Materials Testing / Q000379:methods*; D008832:Microchemistry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000379:methods*