Figure 1

A schematic representation of SNOM instrumentation and working principle. (A) SEM image of a SNOM probe: apical part of a metal coated tapered optical fibre with aperture at the end (bar 200 nm); (B) the small aperture of the optical fibre is held in close proximity of the sample surface and the local light interaction creates near-field used to reach high resolution, overcoming the optical diffraction limit; (C) the position of fibre, the location of reflection and transmission detectors as respect to the scanned sample are shown.