Photon Tunneling Microscopy Applications

Abstract

ABSTRACTWith photon tunneling microscopy (PTM), dielectric, semiconductor, and other surfaces are imaged by means of the phenomenon of photon tunneling (or evanescent waves). Vertical resolution is detector limited to one nanometer and the vertical range is λ/2. Lateral resolution is better than λ/4 with a field-of-view up to approximately 125 µm. PTM produces images of samples independent of size and thickness in real-time without metallization, shadowing, vacuum, electrons, or scanning probes. Tunneling images are analog processed for realtime 3-D topographic imaging with continuous viewpoint and magnification control. In this paper PTM images of a variety of samples are presented and briefly discussed.