Near-field scanning optical microscopy incorporating Raman scattering for vibrational mode contrast

Near-field scanning optical microscopy offers the ability to combine a broad range of spectral contrast features with spatial resolution that is an order of magnitude better than that set by the diffraction limit of the probe light. For many chemical problems, it would be advantageous to use vibrational spectroscopy as the optical contrast mechanism. This realization of optical contrast would enable nanometer scale identification of changes in chemical composition as a function of position and/or time. A leading candidate for this chemical imaging approach is Raman scattering. In this paper a comparison of transmitted and reflected signals will be made as a function of probe-to-sample separation, thus discriminating between bulk and near-field contributions of the detected signal. Also, the decay of the Raman intensity as a function of probe-to-sample separation will be used to show the sensitivity to local field effects.

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