The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 07, 1990
Filed:
Apr. 28, 1989
Hemantha K Wickramasinghe, Chappaqua, NY (US);
Clayton C Williams, Peekskill, NY (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A near field optical microscopy method and apparatus eliminates the necessity of an aperture for scanning a sample surface and greatly reduces the detected background signal. A small dimension tip, on the order of atomic dimension, is disposed in close proximity to the sample surface. A dither motion is applied to the tip at a first frequency in a direction substantially normal to the plane of the sample surface. Dither motion is simultaneously applied to the sample at a second frequency in a direction substantially parallel to the plane of the sample surface. The amplitude of the motions are chosen to be comparable to the desired measurement resolution. The end of the tip is illuminated by optical energy. The scattered light from the tip and surface is detected at the difference frequency for imaging the sample surface at sub-wavelength resolution without the use of an aperture. Alternatively, the tip is maintained stationary and the sample undergoes motion in the two directions.