Experimental and Theoretical Study of the New Image Force Microscopy Principle (Invited Paper)

摘要

A new technique in microscopy is demonstrated in which the domain of Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is extended to optical spectroscopy at the nanometer scale. Molecular resonance of feature sizes down to the single molecular level were detected and imaged purely by mechanical detection of the force gradient between the interaction of the optically driven object molecular dipole and its mirror image in a Platinum coated scanning probe tip. We provide full experimental details including a basic theory for this new technique. The microscopy and spectroscopy technique is extendable to frequencies ranging from radio to infrared and the ultra violet.