Scattering-type Near-field Microscopy: From Nanoscale Infrared Material Recognition to Superlens Studies

We demonstrate that scattering-type near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) allows nanoscale resolved infrared mapping of materials and electron concentrations e.g. in cross-sectional samples of semiconductor nanostructures. s-SNOM can be also applied to map the optical near fields of novel photonic structures as we show with a SiC superlens.