FABRICATION OF A TRIPLE TAPERED PROBE FOR NEAR-FIELD OPTICAL SPECTROSCOPY IN UV REGION-BASED ON SELECTIVE ETCHING OF A MULTISTEP INDEX FIBER

We propose a method to fabricate a novel triple tapered probe for high ly sensitive and highly resolved near-field optical microscopy in a ne ar ultraviolet region. The method is based on selective etching of a m ultistep index fiber. The obtained fiber probe has a triple tapered st ructure with three taper angles of 60 degrees, 120 degrees, and 60 deg rees. With near-field optical microscopy employing the probe, we succe eded in obtaining a photoluminescence image of polysilanes excited by an ultraviolet laser with a wavelength of 351 nm. (C) 1998 Elsevier Sc ience B.V.