• Ceramist
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.55-66
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• 2007

Infrared Scanning Near-field Optical Microscopy (IR-SNOM) is an extremely powerful analytical instrument since it combines IR spectroscopy's high chemical specificity with SNOM's high spatial resolution. In order to do this in the infrared, specialty chalcogenide glass fibers were fabricated and their ends tapered to generate SNOM probes. The fiber tips were installed in a modified near field microscope and both inorganic and biological samples illuminated with the tunable output from a free-electron laser located at Vanderbilt University. Both topographical and IR spectral images were simultaneously recorded with a resolution of ${\sim}50\;nm$ and ${\sim}100\;nm$, respectively. Unique spectroscopic features were identified in all samples, with spectral images exhibiting resolutions of up to ${\lambda}/60$, or at least 30 times better than the diffraction limited lens-based microscopes. We believe that IR-SNOM can provide a very powerful insight into some of the most important bio-medical research topics.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.5-14
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• 2003

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.76.2-76.2
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• 2015

I will present my research group's recent investigation on how the localized plasmon of a nanoparticle interacts with another plasmon, and with nearby molecules. First, I will demonstrate the use of scattering-type scanning near-field microscopy (s-SNOM) to directly visualize the capacitive / conductive coupling in dimeric nanoparticles and heterometallic nanorods. Second, I will talk about the use of gap-plasmons to locally induce photochemical reactions, and to follow chemical kinetics of individual organic molecules using the gap-plasmons. As a last topic, I will talk about the use of near-field coupling between a scanning probe and graphenes to visualize / identify the stacking domains (e. g., ABA versus ABC-type stacking in triple layer) hidden in multilayer graphenes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.718-721
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• 2001

For higher recording density in optical data storage, near field optics is being actively researched as one of the promising alternatives. But the tight assembling tolerance in NFR is one of big barriers to overcome for the realization of it. In this paper, the tolerances in assembling optic components of NFR system are analyzed. Some of key tolerances can be loosened by the optimization of objective lens design. But one of them become too tight by the optimization and should be controlled by other means. One of possible methods to control the tolerance is discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2000.06a
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• pp.1528-1532
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• 2000

The conventional optics and near field optics are compared numerically in the view points of the spot size and propagation characteristics. The decaying characteristics of near field light require the optics to access the object within several tens of nanometers. Therefore the gap control is one of the main issues in the near field optics area. In this paper the gap control is done by using the shear force of the NF(Near Field) probe and the characteristics are examined. The probe is modeled as a 2'nd order mass-spring-damper system driven by a harmonic force. The primary cause of the decrease in vibration amplitude is due to the damping force - shear force - between the surface and the probe. Using the model, damping constant and resonance frequency of the probe is calculated as a function of probe-sample distance. Detecting the amplitude and phase shift of the NF probe attached to the high Q-factor piezoelectric tuning fork, we can control the position of the NF probe about 0 to 50nm above the sample. The feedback signal to regulate the probe-sample distance can be used independently for surface topography imaging. 3-D view of the shear force image of a testing sample with the period of $1{\mu}m$ will be shown.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.317-320
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• 2013

We studied the polarization state in an apertureless scanning near-field microscopy (a-SNOM) operating in reflection mode by using three-dimensional Finite-difference Time-domain (FDTD) method. As a result, the electric field around tip apex in the near-field region enhanced four times stronger than the incident light for ppolarization when the tip-sample separation was 10 nm. We find that the p- and s-polarization state is maintained for the scattered light when the probe is perpendicular to the sample. When the probe is not perpendicular to the sample, the polarization state of scattered light will rotate an angle that equals to the inclination angle of probe with p-polarization illumination. On the other hand, the polarization state will not rotate with s-polarization illumination.