Full-field optical coherence microscopy (FF-OCM) and optically sectioned fluorescence microscopy are two imaging techniques that are implemented here in a novel dual modality instrument. The two imaging modalities use a broad field illumination to acquire the entire field of view without raster scanning. Optical sectioning is achie...

Demand for visualizing nanoscale dynamics in biological and advanced materials continues to drive the development of subdiffraction optical probes. While many strategies employ scanning tips for this purpose, we instead exploit a focused electron beam to create scannable nanoscale optical excitations in an epitaxially grown thin-film of cerium-doped yttrium aluminum perovskite, whose cathodolum...

We describe a leakage radiation microscope technique that can be used to extend the leakage radiation microscopy to optically non-transparent samples. In particular, two experiments are presented, first to demonstrate that acquired images with our configuration correspond to the leakage radiation phenomenon and second, to show possible applications by directly imaging a plasmonic structure that...

A new apparatus for magneto-optical investigations of high temperature superconducting ~HTS! films as large as 20320 cm is presented. With this equipment flux penetration of an external magnetic field into YBCO thin films has been studied by scanning the samples through an inhomogeneous magnetic field ~magneto-optical scanning technique, MOST!. The normal penetration of magnetic flux into a sup...

Scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) is applied to investigate three-dimensional optical near field distribution, including both amplitude and phase information. A method analogous to the force volume mode of the atomic force microscopy (AFM) technique is adapted for the measurement. The results show high lateral resolution of tens of nanometers, and even higher verti...

Scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) is a popular tool to overcome the diffraction limit for the investigation of subwavelength-scale optical structures. For nearly 30 years, various configurations have been implemented to characterize the interactions of the electromagnetic field with nanostructures in the near field. An accurate understanding of these interactions requires a detailed...

We present the realisation of near-field spectroscopic measurements with fibre-tip-based scanning near-field microscopy. It allows simultaneous acquisition of near-field optical images in a broad spectral range (400 nm to 1000 nm), thus recovering local spectroscopic information. The technique is essential for understanding the resonant interaction of light with nanostructured objects as the fa...