The use of a near-field probe for the study of semiconductor heterostructures

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Abstract
We present a calculation to determine the intensity profile and polarization state within a semiconductor sample of the electric field emission from a scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM) probe. The propagation of radiation from the apex of a metal-coated tapered optical fibre to the sample, and the subsequent propagation of the electric field through the sample are calculated by using the Bethe-Bouwkamp model, considering the problem to be that of diffraction of linearly polarized monochromatic light by a subwavelength circular hole in a perfectly conducting metallic screen. The sample chosen in our calculation, GaAs, allows us to demonstrate that subwavelength imaging is possible on buried heterostructures.