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Scanning near-field infrared microscopy

Nature Reviews Physics volume 3, page 537 (2021)Cite this article

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An Author Correction to this article was published on 07 June 2021

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In scattering SNOM, a laser is focused onto a metallized atomic force microscope (AFM) probe, which excites a tightly confined near-field (a non-radiative electromagnetic field) at the probe’s apex. When the probe is introduced to a sample surface, the near-field scatters light from a highly localized area. This light can be isolated from background scattering using lock-in techniques and interferometry, which allows phase-sensitive detection of the nanoscale light-matter interaction with around 10–20 nm resolution. This is orders of magnitude better than what can be resolved with a diffraction limited system.

Coupling a SNOM setup with electrical device measurements extends the range of detectable material properties beyond simple optical properties. For example, IR heating induces a potential difference in many samples thanks to the Seebeck effect. Using a SNOM tip as a near-field probe while measuring the current through a device allows us to produce nanoscale maps of the photothermoelectric current generated by the IR radiation. This setup has been used to probe variations in the local Seebeck coefficient caused by charge puddles in graphene, which play a key role in determining electrical mobility.

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Acknowledgements

Sincere thanks go to O. Kazakova and A. Tzalenchuk for their help and guidance. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under grant agreement GrapheneCore3, no. 881603. The work has also been financially supported by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy though NMS funding (2D Materials Cross-team project).

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  1. National Physical Laboratory, London, UK

    Tom Vincent

  2. Royal Holloway, University of London, London, UK

    Tom Vincent

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  1. Tom Vincent
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Correspondence to Tom Vincent.

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Vincent, T. Scanning near-field infrared microscopy. Nat Rev Phys 3, 537 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-021-00337-y

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