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A nonoptical phase-locked shear-force microscope utilizing a quartz crystal tuning fork acting as a voltage-controlled oscillator in a phase-locked loop has been implemented. A tapered optical fiber is rigidly mounted on one of the prongs of the fork to serve as both a shear-force pickup and a near-field optical probe. The crystal is driven at its resonance frequency through positive feedback of the monitored current through the crystal. This signal is used as the voltage-controlled oscillator in a phase-locked loop. The scheme allows for scan speeds far beyond the Q-limited amplitude sensor bandwidth and exhibits excellent sensitivity for a high-Q resonator. Furthermore, given the small vibration amplitude of the tip (<0.5 nm) and the distance over which it is reduced (> 6 nm), it is unlikely that the tip is making direct contact with the sample surface as has been suggested for the optical shear-force detection scheme.

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We present a focused ion-beam (FIB) fabrication method for very clean and well-defined subwavelength fiber probes with metallic apertures of a desired diameter for use in near-field scanning optical microscopy. Such probes exhibit improved features compared to probes coated with metal by the conventional angled evaporation technique. Examples of FIB fabricated fiber probes are shown and images of a test sample are presented using one of the probes in a near-field microscope.

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