Microarrays of near-field optical probes with adjustable dimensions.

We present the fabrication and the characterization of high-density microarrays comprising thousands of near-field optical probes. Two types of microarrays have been prepared by adapting the SNOM methodology: arrays of uncoated fiber nanotips (i.e. apertureless probes) and arrays of apertures with adjustable subwavelength dimensions. Such arrays were fabricated by retaining the coherent structure of monomode optical fiber bundles and therefore keeping their imaging properties. The size of the apertures in a microarray was tuned at the nanometer scale by modifying the fabrication parameters. Far-field characterization of these near-field probe arrays shows completely different behavior depending both on their architecture and on their characteristic size. The angular distribution of the far-field intensity transmitted through the aperture arrays is used to determine the optical size of such diffracting apertures. Aperture radii ranging from 95 to 250 nm were found in good agreement with SEM data. Furthermore, each nanoaperture of the array is optically independent in the far-field regime. Eventually, this study demonstrates potential applications of these imaging arrays as parallel near-field optical probes in both configurations (apertureless and with apertures).