OPTICAL BINDING IN SCANNING PROBE MICROSCOPY

When a light beam impinges on two interacting objects of subwavelength size, a spatially confined electromagnetic field arises in the immedi ate proximity of the particles. In scanning probe microscopy, short-ra nge forces induced by this electromagnetic near-field change the magni tude of the probe tip-substrate interaction. In this letter we analyse the physical process responsible for these forces in the context of t he localized field susceptibility method.