Scanning Near-field Optical Microscopies suffer from the low signal to noise ratio, due to the smallness of the diffracting probe used to get images. Therefore a lock-in amplifier is commonly used to perform homodyne detection. From the lock-in data, we reconstruct the near-field intensity diffracted by the probe-end in the case of approach curves. We show that the reconstructed and the detected signals can strongly differ. The reconstruction of the signal is necessary to give physical interpretation.

© 2005 Optical Society of America

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J. Appl. Phys.

• J.N. Walford, J.A. Porto, R. Carminati, J.J. Greffet, P.M. Adam, S. Hudlet, J.L. Bijeon, A. Stashkevitch, and P. Royer, �??Influence of tip modulation on image formation in scanning near-field optical microscopy,�?? J. Appl. Phys. 89, 5159-5169 (2001). [CrossRef]

J. Chem. Phys.

• A. Dereux, C. Girard, and J.C. Weeber, �??Theoretical principles of near-field optical microscopies and spectroscopies,�?? J. Chem. Phys. 112, 7775-7789 (2000). [CrossRef]

J. Opt. Soc. Am. A

• D. Macías, A. Vial, and D. Barchiesi, �??Application of evolution strategies for the solution of an inverse problem in near-field optics,�?? J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 21, 1465-1471 (2004). [CrossRef]

J. Opt. Soc. Am. B

• S. Aubert, A. Bruyant, S. Blaize, R. Bachelot, G. Lerondel, S. Hudlet, and P. Royer, �??Analysis of the interferometric effect of the background light in apertureless scanning near-field optical microscopy,�?? J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 20, 2117-2124 (2003). [CrossRef]

Opt. Commun.

• R. Fikri, T. Grosges, and D. Barchiesi, �??Apertureless scanning near-field optical microscopy: Numerical modeling of the lock-in detection,�?? Opt. Commun. 232, 15-23 (2004). [CrossRef]

Opt. Lett.

• R. Fikri, T. Grosges, and D. Barchiesi, �??Apertureless scanning near-field optical microscopy : On the need of the tip vibration modelling,�?? Opt. Lett. 28, 2147-2149 (2003). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Prog. Surf. Sci.

• J.J. Greffet and R. Carminati, �??Image formation in near-field optics,�?? Prog. Surf. Sci. 56, 133-237 (1997). [CrossRef]

Rep. Prog. Phys.

• C. Girard, C. Joachim, and S. Gauthier, �??The physics of the near-field,�?? Rep. Prog. Phys. 63, 893-938 (2000). [CrossRef]
• D. Courjon and C. Bainier, �??Near field microscopy and near field optics,�?? Rep. Prog. Phys. 57, 989-1027 (1994). [CrossRef]

Other

• I.S. Gradshteyn and I.M. Ryzhik, Table of Integrals, Series, and Products. (Academic Press Inc., London, 1994).
• M. Born, E. Wolf, Principle of Optics (Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1993).

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