Scanning Near‐field Magneto‐optic Microscopy: Quantitative Measurements of Local Faraday Effects

Abstract

The implementation of a phase-modulating polarization detector into a scanning near-Ðeld optical microscope allows the imaging of local magneto-optic e †ects with spatial resolution. By taking several pictures at the same location with di †erent detector settings, a quantitative evaluation of magneto-optic e †ects, such as Faraday rotation, becomes possible. Images were taken from thin garnet Ðlms using this method.

Topographic cross talk in reflection mode near-field optical microscopy on patterned structures

“…A parabolic mirror collects the light reflected from the surface which is then collimated onto a detector. 5,6 Shear-force interaction 7,8 is used for tip-sample distance control. Further details of the setup are given in Refs.…”

Scanning Near-Field Magneto-Optic Microscopy: Quantitative Determination of Faraday and Kerr Effects

“…Shear-force distance regulation is accomplished by measuring the ampli- tude attenuation of a 32.7 kHz quartz tuning fork attached to the fiber [12]. A detailed description of the set-up has been published elsewhere [9]. By implementing the scanning head into the focus of a parabolic reflector as shown in Fig.…”

“…The lock-inamplifier amplitudes IQ and ho. of the modulation measured on the first harmonic Q and the second harmonic 2Q, respectively, are [9]:…”

“…Since the discovery thirteen years ago [1] near-field optical microscopy has grown to a widely used new tool for surface analysis because of the possibility of obtaining simultaneous infonnation on topographical and optical properties on a nanometer scale. Recent examples include investigations of single-molecule fluorescence [2,3,4], surface plasmon effects [5, 6J, and magneto-optic effects [7,8,9,10].…”