title: Gold-bead scanning near-field optical microscope with laser-force position control.
abstract: We have developed a scanning near-field optical microscope with an optically trapped metallic particle that has a small diameter compared to the wavelength of visible light. In this microscope we employed spot illumination to enhance the intensity of light scattered from a probe particle so we could reduce the diameter of the probe particle to 40 nm. We detected slight irregularities of the surface of the cover glass near 10-nm depth. Also, we observed gold colloidal particles on the surface of the cover glass.
authors.affiliation: Joint Research Center for Atom Technology, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sugiura
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okada
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Inouye
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kawata