Investigating the probe-tip influence on imaging using scanning near-field optical microscopy

The influence of the near-field probe-tip on a model sample consisting one-dimensional apertures is investigated using scanning optical microscopy (SNOM). We use finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations combined with SNOM scans to show that has rather profound effect shape measured transmission intensity profiles. By taking into account perturbations introduced by probe, our newly developed FDTD facilitates quantitative analysis data and provides new insights near-surface, subwavelength interactions.