Photon tunneling from InP material surface

Photon Tunneling Microscopy (PTM) has been proposed recently for obtaining high resolution information concerning the surface corrugation and subsurface features of dielectric materials. Most investigations have dealt with glass like materials (n≃1.5) in visible light. Except for the very indicative work of de Fornel et al. (1993) on Silicon dioxide and the midinfrared experiment of Piednoir et al. (1993) on a ZnSe sample, nothing substantial has been done in the field of semiconductor materials (2<n<3.5) and their near infra red domain of transparency (1<λ<2 μm). We have shown in a previous computer simulation that the latter situation is at a real advantage for obtaining high resolution images in spite of the increased wavelength. PTM should be a very efficient tool for semiconductor surface qualification and also in the submicron OEIC technology. In this paper we report an analysis of the surface of InP samples by Photon Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (PSTM). The first part deals with the background of PSTM and the experimental set-up whereas the second part is devoted to the results and the discussion