Alberto Bilenca

We introduce a new aperture-type near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) system, which rely on large area (e.g., > 200 × 200 nm) aperture geometries that have sharp corners. The spatial resolution of this new near-field imaging modality is not determined by the size of the aperture, but rather by the sharpness of the comers of the large aperture. This approach significantly improves the light throughput of the near-field probe and therefore increases the optical signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Here we discuss the basics of this new near-field microscopy approach and illustrate both theoretically and experimentally that an array of detectors can be utilized to further improve the SNR of the near-field image.