Expand this Topic clickable element to expand a topic
Skip to content
Optica Publishing Group

Fourier analysis near-field polarimetry for measurement of local optical properties of thin films

Not Accessible

Your library or personal account may give you access

Abstract

We present measurements of the local diattenuation and retardance of thin-film specimens by using techniques that combine near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) and a novel polarization-modulation (PM) polarimetry utilizing Fourier analysis of the detected intensity signal. Generally, quantitative near-field polarimetry is hampered by the optical anisotropy of NSOM probes. For example, widely used aluminum-coated pulled-fiber aperture probes typically exhibit a diattenuation near 10%. Our analysis of aperture diattenuation demonstrates that the usual techniques for nulling a PM polarimeter result in a nonzero residual probe retardance in the presence of a diattenuating tip. However, we show that both diattenuation and retardance of the sample can be determined if the corresponding tip properties are explicitly measured and accounted for in the data. In addition, in thin films (<100 nm thick), where the sample retardance and diattenuation are often small, we show how to determine these polarimetric quantities without requiring alignment of the fast and diattenuating axes, which is a more general case than has been previously discussed. We demonstrate our techniques by using two types of polymer-film specimens: ultrahigh molecular weight block copolymers (recently noted for their photonic activity) and isotactic polystyrene spherulites. Finally, we discuss how changes in the tip diattenuation during data collection can limit the accuracy of near-field polarimetry and what steps can be taken to improve these techniques.

© 2003 Optical Society of America

Full Article  |  PDF Article
More Like This
Nanometer scale polarimetry studies using a near-field scanning optical microscope

E. B. McDaniel, S. C. McClain, and J. W. P. Hsu
Appl. Opt. 37(1) 84-92 (1998)

Near-field optical apertured tip and modified structures for local field enhancement

Phan Ngoc Minh, Takahito Ono, Shuji Tanaka, and Masayoshi Esashi
Appl. Opt. 40(15) 2479-2484 (2001)

Measurements of linear diattenuation and linear retardance spectra with a rotating sample spectropolarimeter

David B. Chenault and Russell A. Chipman
Appl. Opt. 32(19) 3513-3519 (1993)

Cited By

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Figures (14)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Figure files are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Tables (2)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Article tables are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Equations (44)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Equations are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Select as filters


Select Topics Cancel
© Copyright 2024 | Optica Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved