title: Modal approximation for the electromagnetic field of a near-field optical probe.
abstract: A formalism is given in which the optical field generated by a near-field optical aperture is described as an analytic expansion over a complete set of optical modes. This vectoral solution preserves the divergent behavior of the near field and the dipolar nature of the far field. Numerical calculation of the fields requires only evaluation of a well behaved, one-dimensional integral. The formalism is directly applicable to experiments in near-field scanning optical microscopy when relatively flat samples are evaluated.
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Grober
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rutherford
authors.forename: T D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Harris