Investigating the probe-tip influence on imaging using scanning near-field optical microscopy

The influence of the near-field probe-tip on a model sample consisting of one-dimensional apertures is investigated using scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM). We use finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations combined with SNOM scans to show that the probe-tip has a rather profound effect on the shape of the measured transmission intensity profiles. By taking into account the near-field perturbations introduced by the probe, our newly developed FDTD model facilitates the quantitative analysis of SNOM data and provides new insights into near-surface, subwavelength optical interactions.