Near-field thermal imaging of nano-structured surfaces

Author(s): Achim Kittel, Uli F. Wischnath, Joachim Welker, Oliver Huth, Felix Rueting, Svend-Age Biehs
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Article: APL 93, 193109 (2008), American Institute of Physics
Keywords: near field, near-field scanning thermal microscope, nsthm, electromagnetic local density of states, LDOS, thermal imaging, nano structures
PACS: 78.67.-n, 73.22.-f, 61.46.-w
Abstract:: We show that a near-field scanning thermal microscope, which essentially detects the local density of states of the thermally excited electromagnetic modes at nanometer distances from some material, can be employed for nanoscale imaging of structures on that material's surface. This finding is explained theoretically by an approach which treats the surface structure perturbatively.
URL: http://www.physik.uni-oldenburg.de/condmat/Biehs/pubs/p_apl08.pdf/ (application/pdf)