Ultra-high spatial and temporal resolution using Scanning Near-field Optical Microscopy

Abstract

Scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) is a system that can image beyond the conventional diffraction limit. It does this by collecting the information contained within evanescent fields. This unique ability to image using evanescent fields also enables SNOM to directly measure the electric field distribution in waveguides, where light is guided by total internal reflection.

When SNOM is used with a spectrally resolving detector, local temporal phenomena can be detected by analysing spectral interference in the spectra collected by the probe. This spectrally resolving configuration was used to directly measure inter-modal group velocity difference in a multimode ridge waveguide and, using the modes’ spatial profiles to experimentally determine the mode amplitude coefficient ratio. Such an ability to provide measurements on the local dispersion characteristics and relative modal amplitudes of guided light establishes SNOM as a route for investigating the conversion of current single mode photonic devices into multimode devices.

The spectrally resolving SNOM system was also used to investigate the sources of temporal delays created by a quasi disordered scattering sample, which was based on John H. Conway’s pinwheel tiling. Whilst the measurements do not create a complete picture of the scattering phenomena in this work, suggestions for improvement are offered with the aim establishing spectrally resolving SNOM systems as tools for mapping localised temporal phenomena in disordered scattering systems.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Sam Berry: orcid.org/0000-0002-9538-8655

ORCID for W.S. Brocklesby: orcid.org/0000-0002-2123-6712

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