Comparison of PSTM with A-SNOM

Abstract

A comparison between PSTM and A-SNOM in resolution, contrast and optical efficiency is discussed. The order of magnitude roughly estimated shows that PSTM is much better than commercial A-SNOM.

Review of near-field optical microscopy

“…Based on these three invented patents, the first resolution NOM of AF / PSTM (combination of vertical resonance mode AFM with PSTM ) was developed and passed the appraisal organized by the experts group of National Ministry of Education in 2002 [32,33]. The results of functional examination experiments have shown that AF/PSTM prototype is much better than A-SNOM [34]. There are three advantages of this system [35]: (1) It can eliminate the optical false image in PSTM; (2) The optical image and topographic image of sample are separated with AF / PSTM; (3) During scanning two optical images (refractive index image and transmissivity image) and two AFM images (topography and phase) can be obtained.…”