R. Micheletto et al., A simple method for the fabrication of low cost scanning near field optical microscope probes with acrylic paint as coating element, OPT COMMUN, 188(1-4), 2001, pp. 11-15
We derived a simple method to fabricate scanning near field optical microsc
opes (SNOMs) optical probes from commercial cheap communication optical fib
ers. The tips are etched in one single step at the oil-acid interface of a
HF solution. The resulting probes are then coated with acrylic paint in ord
er to screen the light and a small optical aperture is spontaneously formed
at the apex. The method is straightforward and requires a few hours for a
number of ready to use probes. The original use of paint simplifies strongl
y the procedure of screening of the fiber that usually has been performed b
y costly and time consuming metal coating technique. We show that the tips
are fully operational and we demonstrate a good optical resolving power (10
0 nm). As far as we know, our method makes the cheapest SNOM probes within
this resolution range. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.