We demonstrate a new method whereby near-field optical microscope resolution can be extended to the nanometer regime. The technique is based on measuring the modulation of the scattered electric field from the end of a sharp silicon tip as it is stabilized and scanned in close proximity to a sample surface. Our initial results demonstrate resolution in the 3 nm range--comparable to what can be ...

An important property of electromagnetic fields, which arises from the interaction between fields and chiral molecules, is called optical chirality. By enhancing this field property, while maintaining constant input power, we are able to increase absorption of circularly polarized light by chiral molecules of a certain handedness. This enhancement is achieved through the use of achiral plasmoni...

An apertureless optical near-field scanning microscope system has been created by combining a commercially available atomic force microscope and an ellipsometer without any prior changes in design of the respective devices. In preliminary experiments, an optical resolution of about 20 nm ~l/32! has been achieved using the combined microscope. The intensity of the measured optical signal has bee...

Since the photoacoustic effect relies only on the absorbed optical energy, the back-reflected photons from samples in optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy are usually discarded. By employing a 2 x 2 single-mode fiber optical coupler in a laser-scanning optical-resolution photoacoustic microscope for delivering the illuminating laser light and collecting the back reflected photons, a fibe...

Planar optical lenses are fundamental elements of miniaturized photonic devices. However, conventional planar optical lenses are constrained by the diffraction limit in the optical far-field due to the band-limited wavevectors supported by free-space and loss of high-spatial-frequency evanescent components. As inspired by Einstein's radiation 'needle stick', electromagnetic energy can be delive...

In this thesis a new instrument, the all-optical scanning acoustic microscope (O-SAM) is presented, it is a non contact scanning acoustic microscope (SAM) which uses lasers to both generate and detect surface acoustics waves (SAWs) The non contact nature of the O-SAM overcomes some difficulties associated with conventional SAMs because of the couplant and surface contact involved. This O-SAM al...

We experimentally demonstrate the control of the light polarization emitted by a 1310 nm dilute nitride spin-Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) at room temperature. This is achieved by means of a combination of polarized optical pumping and polarized optical injection. Without external injection the polarization of the optical pump controls that of the spin-VCSEL. However, the addit...