IMAGING WITH REFLECTION NEAR-FIELD OPTICAL MICROSCOPE - CONTRIBUTIONS OF MIDDLE AND FAR FIELDS

摘要

Within the framework of a microscopic formalism, we present a theoretical analysis of the imaging properties of scanning near-field optical microscopy in reflection. The detected optical signal is assumed to be proportional to the intensity of the self-consistent field at the site of the probe dipole, Influence of different components (near, middle and far fields) of the field propagator on the total field intensity is numerically studied for two arrangements of object dipoles and for various probe-surface distances, We demonstrate that for relatively large distances the middle-field components dominate in the total field and ensure the subwavelength resolution. Imaging properties of the reflection near-field microscopy observed experimentally are qualitatively explained with the help-of our numerical simulations. [References: 25]