Abstract
As described in Section 3.1, the probe is the most essential component governing the performance of the NOM. Since the size of the probe tip is of the order of nanometers, special advanced fabrication processes have had to be developed. Fabrication methods such as pulling heated glass capillaries [1] and sharpening quartz rods or optical fibers by chemical etching have been used [2, 3]. However, neither sufficiently high reproducibility nor an apex diameter small enough for resolving the nanometric-scale structure of samples has been obtained. Further, tailoring the profile of the probe for higher transmission efficiency is not possible. To solve these problems, a selective etching method widely used in semiconductor very large-scale integrated chip fabrication has been applied to sharpen a single-mode fiber using buffered hydrofluoric (HF) acid as an etching agent [4]. Sections 4.1 and 4.2 describe the processes of sharpening the fiber and coating a metallic film to fabricate a protruded probe, respectively. Section 4.3 reviews the fabrication and performance of other novel fiber probes.
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Ohtsu, M., Hori, H. (1999). Fabrication of Probes. In: Near-Field Nano-Optics. Lasers, Photonics, and Electro-Optics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4835-5_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4835-5_4
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