A simple model of the scanning near-field optical microscopy probe tip for electric field enhancement

In this paper, we present a simple near-field probe model that is composed of an elongated ellipsoid and a finite metal truncated cone. The elongated ellipsoid has been shown to act as a protrusion or separate particle near a truncated cone apex with strong near-field enhancement under laser excitation. By controllably varying the length of the ellipsoid protrusion from the truncated cone, the truncated cone-ellipsoid probes can be adapted to the suitability of near-field probes. The effects of substrate material and excitation wavelength on the near field enhancement for different tip apexes are also discussed. In addition, we compared the properties of the truncated cone-ellipsoid probe with the widely used hemisphere conical tip by launching surface plasmon polaritons on plasmonic waveguides to prove the suitability of the truncated cone-ellipsoid probes as high performance near-field probes. The present simple model would provide a theoretical basis for the actual construction of probes.

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Opracowanie ze środków MNiSW w ramach umowy 812/P-DUN/2016 na działalność upowszechniającą naukę (zadania 2017).