Development of scattering near-field optical microspectroscopy apparatus using an infrared synchrotron radiation source

We report the status of a scattering near-field microspectroscopy apparatus developed at SPring-8 using an infrared synchrotron radiation (IR-SR) source. It consists of a scattering type scanning near-field optical microscope and a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer. The IR-SR is used as a highly brilliant and broad-band IR source. This apparatus has potential for application in near-field spectroscopy with high spatial resolution beyond the diffraction limit. In order to eliminate background scatterings from the probe shaft and/or sample surface, we used higher harmonic demodulation method. The near-field spectra were observed by 2nd harmonic components using the lock-in detection. The spatial resolution of about 300nm was achieved at around 1000cm−1 (10μm wavelength).