title: Standardization of excitation efficiency in near-field scanning optical microscopy.
abstract: Near-field scanning optical microscope (NSOM or SNOM) is a form of scanning probe microscope (SPM), which is used to observe the optical properties of a sample surface with a nanometer-scale spatial resolution. Since the near-field light strongly interacts with the sample surface, or with nanometer-scale objects on the substrate's surface, NSOM is advantageous to excite only the vicinity of a sample surface. From the view point of surface chemical analysis, a discussion about the light energy concentration within a nanometer-scale region, and an estimation of its efficiency are indispensable for accurate measurements of the optical properties in a nanometer-scale region. In this paper, we describe the concept, the cautions and the general guidelines of a method to measure the excitation efficiency of aperture-type NSOM instruments.
authors.affiliation: Nanophysics Group, Quantum Dot Research Center, National Institute for Materials Science, 3-13 Sakura, Tsukuba 305-0003, Japan. MITSUI.Tadashi@nims.go.jp
authors.forename: Tadashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mitsui
authors.forename: Yasutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Imanaka
authors.forename: Kanji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takehana
authors.forename: Tadashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takamasu
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakajima
authors.forename: Jeongyong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim