With featured SNOM objectives and unique cantilever SNOM sensors, imaging beyond the diffraction limit is accomplished quickly and effortlessly with the WITec SNOM microscopes:
All WITec SNOM microscopes are equipped with unique, patented, high-quality micro-fabricated SNOM sensors, consisting of a silicon cantilever with a hollow aluminum pyramid as a tip. The SNOM aperture is at the apex of the pyramid. The laser light used for optical imaging is focused into the backside of the hollow tip and then onto the sample. Due to the wide opening angle of the hollow pyramid, the transmission coefficient is much higher than that of fiber probes of the same diameter. An established and proven method of mass-production enables tips with apertures of varying size to be specified according to customers’ individual requirements. Cantilever SNOM sensors are, unlike fiber tips, very robust and flexible in the z-direction and allow the beam deflection technique to precisely control the tip-sample distance.
All of these innovative characteristics make the handling of probes during near-field microscopy very easy and user-friendly for the most reliable optical imaging available beyond the diffraction limit.