关键词: 近场光学, 近场光学显微镜, 扫描探针显微学, 介观物理, 纳米光谱, 近场光学, 近场光学显微镜, 扫描探针显微学, 介观物理, 纳米光谱

Abstract: The revolutionary development of scanning probe microscopy has made the imaging of objects at molecular or atomic level possible. With the discoveries of new physical phenomena at low dimensions, the near-field scanning optical microscope (NSOM) jointed the family after the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) and the atomic force microscope (AFM). Based on the common principles of non-radiating field, NSOM opened the possibilities of ultra-high optical resolution which overcomes the Rayleigh diffraction limit, and the optical spectroscopy at the nanometer scale. This review article discusses the basic principles of near-field optics, the relationship between non-radiative detection and high spatial resolution, optical confinement on small objects, the importance of evanescent wave as well as the methods to obtain the near field information. The NSOM related instrumentation is introduced. The application of NSOM in super-resolution optical imaging; high density data storage; near-field spectroscopy on single molecules, quantum devices, and the combination of NSOM with ultra-fast optical transient phenomena are summarized.

Key words: near-field optics, near-field scanning optical microscopy, scanning probe microscopy, mesoscopic physics, nanometric spectroscopy, near-field optics, near-field scanning optical microscopy, scanning probe microscopy, mesoscopic physics, nanometric spectroscopy