Scanning near field optical microscopy

This figure represents a key concept from the graduation thesis from Aysegul Cumurcu. It displays a concept known as Near Field Optical Microscopy (SNEM). It enables optical contrast imaging of thin transparent polymer films at the nanoscale level, due to the combination of the spatial tip-sample positioning capability of the atomic force microscopy, together with the high sensitivity of ellipsometry. Aysegul used SNEM in her graduation work for nanoscale characterization of heterogeneous thin polymer films.