Acta Physica Sinica
Preparation of optical probes for scanning near-field infrared microscopy by etching method
Acta Physica Sinica · 50(12), 2322–2326 (2001)
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Introduction
The authors chemically etched a mid-infrared optical fibre to form a probe for scanning near-field infrared microscopy, examining how to produce a short tapered tip. They tested it by measuring the near-field reflection spectrum of gallium nitride with the Beijing free-electron laser.
A closer reading
The fabrication recipe is paired with a measurement on a real sample: tip geometry matters because the probe must collect a usable near-field signal. The GaN demonstration supports that capability without establishing a universal spatial resolution for other samples.