title: Numerical analysis of the transmission efficiency of heat-drawn and chemically etched scanning near-field optical microscopes.
abstract: The scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM) has been tested experimentally for a wide variety of applications, but, to date, there has been little work done on the numerical or analytical modeling of the optical field as it propagates throughout the SNOM probe. Therefore, the fabrication on the probes relies more on trial and error than on clear design principles. An algorithm has been developed for the study and optimization of the geometry of SNOM probes fabricated by the heat-drawn and the one-step chemically etched methods. The algorithm uses the finite-difference beam propagation method (FD-BPM) to model the field evolution throughout the SNOM structure.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Engineering, La Trobe University, Bundoora 3083, Victoria, Australia. p.moar@ee.latrobe.edu.au
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Moar
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ladouceur
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cahill