MultiProbe Apertureless NSOM

  

Multiprobe Apertureless NSOM/ sSNOM: Efficient excitation of a plasmonic structure using an apertured NSOM probe (right probe) which produces all k vectors for effective plasmonic excitation while monitoring the same structure with a scattering probe (left probe). Right: Plasmonic propagation excited by an apertured NSOM probe while a second, low dielectric, non-perturbing, apertureless, fluorescent tipped probe is used for detection of the plasmon propagation 

Scattering near-field scanning optical microscopy called ANSOM or sSNOM has been applied to look at plasmonic distribution. Unfortunately, the probes that need to be used in order to effectively scatter the plasmonic signal have significant perturbation on the plasmonic propagation because of the need to use probes with high dielectric constant to obtain effective signal to noise.The images above show an apertureless NSOM probe that is used as a localized detector of plasmonic propagation without significant effect on the distribution of plasmons. The image indicate that localized aperture NSOM illumination and apertureless monitoring of plasmons has significant potential for investigating plasmonic structures.