Fabrication and application of nearfield optical fibre probe

In this paper, the fabrication of a large cone angle near-field optical fib re probe, using the two-step chemical etching method and bent probe, is int roduced, and the controlling parameters of the coated Cr-Al film at the pro be tip are presented. The scanning electron microscopy images display that the tip diameter of the uncoated large cone angle fibre probe obtained is l ess than 50nm, the cone angle over 90 degrees, and the diameter of light ap erture at the coated probe tip is less than 100nm. The measured results of the optical transmission efficiency for various probe tips show that the un coated straight optical fibre probe, film-coated straight probe and film-co ated bent probe are 3x10(-1), 2x10(-3), and 1x10(-4) times that of the hat fibre probe, respectively. In addition, the force images and near-field opt ical images of a standard sample are acquired using a large cone angle and film-coated bent probe.