Narrow-band near-field nanoscopy in the spectral range from 1.3 to 8.5 THz


Narrow-band near-field nanoscopy in the spectral range from 1.3 to 8.5 THz

Kuschewski, F.; von Ribbeck, H.-G.; Döring, J.; Winnerl, S.; Eng, L. M.; Kehr, S. C.

Nano-spectroscopy in the terahertz frequency range remains challenging despite recent technological progress in developing both THz emitter sources and near-field optical microscopy (SNOM). Here we combine scattering-type SNOM with a free-electron laser (FEL) light source, to tune into the 1.3 - 8.5 THz range. A significant portion of this range, namely the frequencies above ~3 THz, is not covered by previously reported near-field microscopy systems. However, it constitutes an indispensable regime where many elementary processes in solids including collective lattice excitations, charge and spin transport occur. Our approach of nano-spectroscopy and nano-imaging provides a versatile analysis of nanostructures as small as 50 nm, hence beating the optical diffraction limit by λ/4600.

Keywords: near-field microscopy; nanoscopy; terahertz

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Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23382
Publ.-Id: 23382