Abstract
Fluorescence intensity depends strongly on the distance between the emitting molecule and a metallic interface. We show that a scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM) is a simple and versatile tool for studying such an effect. The fluorescent molecules are embedded in a layer upon a silica substrate, and metal is coated on the SNOM tip. We present variations of fluorescence intensity versus tip–sample distance from 800 to . A simple model is used to explain the experimental results. The proposed setup could be used to study nonradiative transfer at a nanometric scale. It could also yield to a new type of optical near-field profiler that uses fluorescent signal.
© 1997 Optical Society of America
Full Article | PDF ArticleMore Like This
Tadao Sugiura, Takao Okada, Yasushi Inouye, Osamu Nakamura, and Satoshi Kawata
Opt. Lett. 22(22) 1663-1665 (1997)
Hiroshi Hatano, Yasushi Inouye, and Satoshi Kawata
Opt. Lett. 22(20) 1532-1534 (1997)
R. Bachelot, P. Gleyzes, and A. C. Boccara
Appl. Opt. 36(10) 2160-2170 (1997)