NSOM Schematic

In current experiments, a continuous wave 532 nm doubled Nd:YAG laser (Coherent Inc.) generates the light sent through a fiber tip.  Typical output power from the aperture is 10 - 100 nW.


fig 2: NSOM Schematic

Figure 2. Experimental configuration for near-field scanning optical microscope (NSOM).  Laser light coupled into a single mode optical fiber passes through a subwavelength aperture at the end of the fiber.  Transmitted light or laser induced fluorescence emission is collected by an objective and imaged onto a detector.  An image is formed by raster scanning the sample and recording the collected light intensity as a function of scan position.

Single Molecule Detection