Frontiers of Optoelectronics

, Volume 5, Issue 2, pp 171–181 | Cite as

Development and prospect of near-field optical measurements and characterizations

Review Article
First Online:
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Abstract

Scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) is an ideal experimental measuring system in nano-optical measurements and characterizations. Besides microscopy with resolution beyond the diffraction limit, spectroscope with nanometer resolution and other instruments with novel performances have been indispensable for researches in nano-optics and nanophotonics. This paper reviews the developing history of near-field optical (NFO) measuring method and foresees its prospects in future. The development of NFO measurements has gone through four stages, including optical imaging with super resolution, near-field spectroscopy, measurements of nanooptical parameters, and detections of near-field interactions. For every stage, research objectives, technological properties and application fields are discussed.

Keywords

scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) near-field optical (NFO) measurement superresolution imaging near-field spectroscopy nano-optics nanophotonics 
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Copyright information

© Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.State Key Laboratory of Precision Measurement Technology and Instruments, Department of Precision InstrumentsTsinghua UniversityBeijingChina

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