Near‐Field Optical Microscopy and Optical Tunneling Detection

By exploring the surface of an illuminated object at a very short distance by means of a subwavelength detector, it is possible to reconstruct images whose resolution is beyond the diffraction limit. This opportunity due to near field properties can be explained in terms of non radiative field detection that is of optical tunneling effect. We present some recent results obtained by using two different illumination‐detection configurations. The first one using internal reflection allows to analyze the surface of transparent objects whereas the second one using the same tip as subwavelength emittor and detector is suitable for reflecting objects.