Heterodyne apertureless near-field scanning optical microscopy on periodic gold nanowells.

Heterodyne detection for apertureless near-field scanning optical microscopy was used to study periodic gold nanowell arrays. Optical near-field amplitude and phase signals were obtained simultaneously with the topography of the gold nanowells and with different polarizations. Theoretical calculations of the near-fields were consistent with the experiments; in particular, the calculated amplitudes were in especially good agreement. The heterodyne method is shown to be particularly effective for these types of periodic photonic structures and other highly scattering media, which can overwhelm the near-field scattered signal when conventional apertureless near-field scanning optical microscopy is used.