Introduction of the nanoparticles in the bulk glass received a large interest due to their versatile application. The composition of Er+3-doped Zinc-Lead-Phosphate glass samples are prepared by melt-quenching technique. The structural and optical properties of phosphate glass have been examined by x-ray diffraction, fie...

We report the first use of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) optical fiber-made probes for scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM). The sharp tips were prepared by chemical etching of the fibers in ethyl acetate, and the probes were prepared by proper gluing of sharpened fibers onto the tuning fork in the conditions of the double resonance (working frequency of a tuning fork coincides with th...

A new microscopy technique is introduced, image scanning microscopy (ISM), which combines conventional confocal-laser scanning microscopy with fast wide-field CCD detection. The technique allows for doubling the lateral optical resolution in fluorescence imaging. The physical principle behind ISM is similar to structured illumination microscopy, by combining the resolving power of confocal-lase...

The near field of an apertureless near-field scanning optical microscopy probe is investigated with a multiple-multipole technique to obtain optical fields in the vicinity of a silicon probe tip and a glass substrate. The results demonstrate that electric field enhancements of >15 relative to the incident fields can be achieved near a silicon tip, implying intensity enhancements of several orde...

Heterodyne detection for apertureless near-field scanning optical microscopy was used to study periodic gold nanowell arrays. Optical near-field amplitude and phase signals were obtained simultaneously with the topography of the gold nanowells and with different polarizations. Theoretical calculations of the near-fields were consistent with the experiments; in particular, the calculated amplitu...