Optical fiber nanoprobe preparation for near-field optical microscopy by chemical etching under surface tension and capillary action

Mondal, S.K. and Mitra, Anupam and Singh, Nahar and Sarkar, S.N. and Kapur , Pawan (2009) Optical fiber nanoprobe preparation for near-field optical microscopy by chemical etching under surface tension and capillary action. Optics Express, 17 (22). pp. 19470-19475. ISSN 1094-4087

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Abstract

We propose a technique of chemical etching for fabrication of near perfect optical fiber nanoprobe (NNP). It uses photosensitive single mode optical fiber to etch in hydro fluoric (HF) acid solution. The difference in etching rate for cladding and photosensitive core in HF acid solution creates capillary ring along core-cladding boundary under a given condition. The capillary ring is filled with acid solution due to surface tension and capillary action. Finally it creates near perfect symmetric tip at the apex of the fiber as the height of the acid level in capillary ring decreases while width of the ring increases with continuous etching. Typical tip features are short taper length (~4 µm), large cone angle (~38°), and small probe tip dimension (<100 nm). A finite difference time domain (FDTD) analysis is also presented to compare near field optics of the NNP with conventional nanoprobe (CNP). The probe may be ideal for near field optical imaging and sensor applications.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	CSIO > Nano Science and Nano Technology
Divisions:	Photonics Instrumentation
Depositing User:	Ms T Kaur
Date Deposited:	29 Jan 2012 20:46
Last Modified:	11 Apr 2012 11:40
URI:	http://csioir.csio.res.in/id/eprint/242

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