Covers not only near-field optical microscopy but also wider fields such as local spectroscopy, nano-scale optical processing, quantum near-field optics, and atom manipulation.

"This groundbreaking book focuses on near-field microscopy which has opened up optical processes at the nanoscale for direct inspection. Further, it explores the emerging area of nano-optics which promises to make possible optical microscopy with true nanometer resolution. This frontline resource helps you achieve high resolution optical imaging of biological species and functional materials. You also find guidance in the imaging of optical device operation and new nanophotonics functionalities"--EBL.

We investigated the excitation of surface plasmon polaritons on gold films with the metallized probe tip of a scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscope (s-SNOM). The emission of the polaritons from the tip, illuminated by near-infrared laser radiation, was found to be anisotropic and not circularly symmetric as expected on the basis of literature data. We furthermore identified an additional excitation channel via light that was reflected off the tip and excited the plasmon polaritons at the edge of the metal film. Our results, while obtained for a non-rotationally-symmetric type of probe tip and thus specific for this situation, indicate that when an s-SNOM is employed for the investigation of plasmonic structures, the unintentional excitation of surface waves and anisotropic surface wave propagation must be considered in order to correctly interpret the signatures of plasmon polariton generation and propagation.

"Scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) is a technique of imaging used for mapping optical near-field signals by detecting evanescent waves, enabling a resolution beyond the diffraction limit, i.e., a lateral and vertical resolution much smaller than the operation wavelength. SNOM has the ability to measure both optical and topographic data in a single scan. In this thesis, we propose the development and optimization of a low-cost SNOM capable of measuring nanoscale topographies and near-field optical signals, such as surface plasmon polaritons. The SNOM uses a shear-force feedback control to set the distance between the probe and the sample (∼ 20 nm) along the entire scan.The results obtained include a stable control system with fast response. The system can provide precise quantitative topographic and optical measurements. Also, an optical method for distance and displacement measurements of the probe-sample separation was developed. "--Resumen hoja v.

The main goal of this dissertation was to realize a fully automated and robust dual-tip scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM) and demonstrate its capabilities to characterize nanophotonic systems. The dual-tip SNOM accesses optical information not simply attained with other super-resolution microscopy techniques. This work thoroughly explained the implementation of a collision prevention scheme and the realization of the fully automated dual-tip SNOM, in which the detection tip automatically scans the entire area surrounding the excitation tip without collision. After successfully implementing the automated dual-tip SNOM, the setup was utilized to measure the near-field of different photonic materials. First, the dual-tip SNOM was used to explore the polarization characteristic of the emission from the bent fiber aperture tip through exciting surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) on an air-gold interface. Another unique application of the dual-tip SNOM is to excite the edge or corner of a photonic system locally. The automated detection tip was used to map a complex near-field pattern due to the excited SPPs and reflected SPPs from the edges of the truncated triangular gold platelet. The most distinguished capability of the automated dual-tip SNOM shown in this thesis is spectral- and spatial-dependent near-field measurements of a nanodisk metasurface as a nanostructured sample. In spectral-dependent near-field measurements, the excitation tip illuminated the silicon metasurface at different wavelengths. In spatial-dependence near-field measurements, the fixed excitation wavelength was used to measure the position-dependent near-field intensities when the metasurface was displaced relative to the excitation tip. It was demonstrated that the integrated measured near-field intensities by the detection tip could be related to the metasurface's partial local density of optical states at the excitation tip's position.