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DS: Fachverband Dünne Schichten
DS 28: [O] Plasmonics and Nanooptics IV (Joint Session DS/O/HL)
DS 28.8: Talk
Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 16:45–17:00, H32
Gold nanocone probes for near-field scanning optical microscopy — •Bastian Zeeb, Christian Schäfer, Peter Nill, Monika Fleischer, and Dieter P. Kern — Institute of Applied Physics, University of Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 10, 72076 Tübingen
Apertureless near-field scanning optical microscopy (ANSOM) provides the possibility to collect simultaneously high-resolution topographical and sub-diffraction limited optical information from a surface. When optically excited, the scanning probes act as optical antennae with a strong near-field enhancement near the tip apex. Spatial resolution and optical near-field enhancement depend strongly on the properties and geometry of the scanning probe - in particular on very sharp tip radii. Various possibilities for fabricating good antennae have been pursued. Most commonly, scanning probes consist of electrochemically etched gold wires which are sharp but not well-defined in geometry.
We present two different approaches for ultra sharp and well-defined antennae based upon fabricating gold nanocones with a tip radius smaller than 10 nm which can be used in ANSOM [e.g. M. Fleischer et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 111114 (2008)]. A transfer process is presented that can be used to attach single gold nanocones to non-metallic probes such as sharp glass fiber tips. Alternatively, new processes are presented to fabricate cones directly on pillars of different materials such as silicon or bismuth, which can be applied to cantilever tips for ANSOM scanning applications.