Near-field microscopy using neaSCOPE systems allows the examination of supercells in amplitude and phase.
The power and elegance of this method can be demonstrated on the case of a super lens consisting of a 440 nm thick SiC crystal between two 220 nm thick SiO2 layers. A patterned gold film vaporized on the underside of the lens with apertures of various diameters was used as the object of analysis. The sample was illuminated from above and the measured data from the near field demonstrate that the 540nm aperture could be observed by an 11µm super lens (approximately 1/20 of the wavelength). Other possible applications of this method include e.g. imaging biological objects in their natural environment, microscopic studies of metamaterials or the study of negative refraction in the near field, which could provide important information and analysis options in the development of photonic devices.
