Effective image and spectral data acquisition method used in scanning near-field optical microscopy by bimorph-based shear force sensor

We have introduced a home-made scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM) with bimorph-based shear force sensor. The instrumentation of the imaging system and the key techniques such as the bimorph-based non-optical shear force sensor design and the fabrication of optical fiber probes used in this SNOM are described in details. Then the good performance of the system is demonstrated by various experiments such as shear force imaging, near-field optical imaging, surface plasmon resonance detection, and near-field spectroscopy. The imaging and spectroscopic experimental results suggest that this home-made SNOM and bimorph-based shear force detection method would be promising techniques to be used in a variety of nanomaterials research and their optical applications.