Three-dimensional (3D) imaging at the nanoscale is a key to understanding of nanomaterials and complex systems. While scanning probe microscopy (SPM) has been the workhorse of nanoscale metrology, its slow scanning speed by a single probe tip can limit the application of SPM to wide-field imaging of 3D complex nanostructures. Both electron microscopy and optical tomography allow 3D imaging, but...

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We report on the application of scanning near-field optical microscopy for terahertz imaging. We demonstrate a spatial resolution of 150 nm for 2.0 THz pulses. Our experiments show the feasibility of submicron THz microscopy for imaging of biologic tissues on the cell level or for the investigation of individual submicron semiconductor devices. © 2003 American Institute of Physics. @DOI: 10.106...

MSURJ • Volume 3, Issue 1 Abstract Many areas of cell biology have remained unexplored due to the limitations of conventional optical microscopy for image structures smaller than the diffraction limit of light. Scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) is an emerging technique which allows sub-diffraction limit optical resolution and hence access to nanoscale structures such as those in bio...

We report an experimental analysis of the capabilities of scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy for mapping sub-surface features at varying depths. For the first time, we demonstrate experimentally that both the spatial resolution and depth contrast can be improved in subsurface microscopy by demodulating the measured near-field signal at higher harmonics of the probe's tapping...

Light-matter interaction can be greatly enhanced in nano-scale plasmonic cavities with tightly confined optical mode, where the mode volume determines the interaction strength. The experimental determination of the mode volume of plasmonic elements is therefore of fundamental importance. Mapping the electric field distribution using near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) may disturb the ...

By offering images with high spatial resolution and unique optical absorption contrast, optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy (OR-PAM) has gained increasing attention in biomedical research. Recent developments in OR-PAM have improved its imaging speed, but have to sacrifice either the detection sensitivity or field of view or both. We have developed a wide-field fast-scanning OR-PAM by u...