Fiber laser probe for near-field scanning optical microscopy

A hybrid near-field/fiber laser probe has been developed for high flux, reflection mode optical imaging of surfaces on a subwavelength scale. Spatial resolution of ∼100 nm (i.e., ∼λ/10 at λ=1060 nm) has been achieved simultaneously with signals of ∼1014–1015 photons/s, an improvement of ∼103–104 over earlier designs. The probe thus represents an important step in the development of advanced near-field transducers for high bandwidth applications such as high density data storage.