Rights statement: This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in ACS Photonics, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see http://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsphotonics.7b00687
Accepted author manuscript, 782 KB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Letter › peer-review
<mark>Journal publication date</mark> | 20/09/2017 |
---|---|
<mark>Journal</mark> | ACS Photonics |
Issue number | 9 |
Volume | 4 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Pages (from-to) | 2150-2157 |
Publication Status | Published |
Early online date | 28/08/17 |
<mark>Original language</mark> | English |
We present a terahertz (THz) scattering near-field optical microscope (s-SNOM) based on a quantum cascade laser implemented as both source and detector in a self-mixing scheme utilizing resonant quartz tuning forks as a sensitive nanopositioning element. The homemade s-SNOM, based on a resonant tuning fork and metallic tip, operates in tapping mode with a spatial resolution of ?78 nm. The quantum cascade laser is realized from a bound-to-continuum active region design with a central emission of ?2.85 THz, which has been lens-coupled in order to maximize the feedback into the laser cavity. Accordingly, the spatial resolution corresponds to >?/1000. The s-SNOM has been used to investigate a bidimensional plasmonic photonic crystal and to observe the optical resonant modes supported by coupled plasmonic planar antennas, showing remarkable agreement with the theoretical predictions. The compactness, unique sensitivity, and fast acquisition capability of this approach make the proposed s-SNOM a unique tool for solid-state investigations and biomedical imaging.