Nanoscale resolved infrared probing of crystal structure and of plasmon-phonon coupling.
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.
Huber
A
A
Nano-Photonics Group, Max-Planck-Institut für Biochemie & Center for Nanoscience, Am Klopferspitz 18, 82152 Martinsried, Germany.
Ocelic
N
N
Taubner
T
T
Hillenbrand
R
R
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*