We demonstrate a new technique for high resolution imaging of near field profiles in highly confining photonic structures. This technique, Transmission-based Near-field Scanning Optical Microscopy (TraNSOM), measures changes in transmission through a waveguide resulting from near field perturbation by a scanning metallic probe. Using this technique we compare different mode polarizations and me...

A combined system for far- and near-field optical spectroscopy consisting of a compact scanning near-field optical microscope and a dedicated spectrometer was realized. The set-up allows the optical investigation of samples at temperatures from 10 to 300 K. The sample positioning range is as large as 5 x 5 x 5 mm3 and the spatial resolution is in the range of 1.5 micro m in the far-field optica...

Scanning near-field optical microscopy is one of the most effective techniques for spectroscopy nanoscale systems. However, inferring constants from measured signal can be challenging because a complicated and highly nonlinear interaction between scanned probe sample. Conventional fitting methods applied to this problem often suffer lack convergence or require human intervention. Here we develo...