Descrovi Emiliano, Aeschimann Laure, Soboleva Irina, De Angelis Francesco, Giorgis Fabrizio, Di Fabrizio Enzo
Materials and Microsystems Laboratory-xLab, Politecnico di Torino, C. so Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy
J Nanosci Nanotechnol. 2009 Nov;9(11):6460-4. doi: 10.1166/jnn.2009.1334.
We report on the possibility of performing Near-field Scanning Optical Microscopy in illumination mode by means of microfabricated, metal-coated silica probes based on transparent cantilevers. A low spring constant silica cantilever hosts a silica tip at its end showing an hyperbolic profile and a circular symmetry. After evaporation of 100 nm of aluminium on the tip and the cantilever we processed the tip apex by means of a FIB, thus obtaining either a probe apex with an optical aperture or an apertureless probe having a thin metal layer on the top. An excellent quality of near-field images of samples showing sub-wavelength features is obtained in both case. In particular, the apertureless probe allows highly resolved topographical and optical images to be collected at the same time. This work further demonstrates that the use of completely transparent, metal-coated cantilevers greatly simplify the light injection into the probe and the fabrication process consequently.
我们报告了通过基于透明悬臂的微加工金属涂层二氧化硅探针在照明模式下进行近场扫描光学显微镜的可能性。低弹簧常数的二氧化硅悬臂在其端部承载一个二氧化硅尖端，该尖端呈现双曲线轮廓和圆对称性。在尖端和悬臂上蒸发100纳米铝后，我们通过聚焦离子束对尖端顶点进行加工，从而获得具有光学孔径的探针顶点或顶部具有薄金属层的无孔径探针。在这两种情况下，都获得了显示亚波长特征的样品的高质量近场图像。特别是，无孔径探针允许同时收集高分辨率的形貌和光学图像。这项工作进一步证明，使用完全透明的金属涂层悬臂极大地简化了光注入探针的过程以及制造过程。
