Photon theory hypothesis about photon tunneling microscope's subwavelength resolution

Yanbin Zhu; Junfu Ma

doi:10.1117/12.218685

6 September 1995 Photon theory hypothesis about photon tunneling microscope's subwavelength resolution

Yanbin Zhu, Junfu Ma

Proceedings Volume 2535, Near-Field Optics; (1995) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.218685
Event: SPIE's 1995 International Symposium on Optical Science, Engineering, and Instrumentation, 1995, San Diego, CA, United States

Abstract

The foundation for the invention of the photon scanning tunneling microscope (PSTM) are the near field scanning optical microscope, the optical fiber technique, the total internal reflection, high sensitive opto-electronic detecting technique and computer technique etc. Recent research results show the subwavelength resolution of 1 - 3 nm is obtained. How to explain the PSTM has got such high subwavelength resolution? What value is the PSTM's limiting of subwavelength resolution? For resolving these problems this paper presented a photon theory hypothesis about PSTM that is based on the following two basic laws: (1) Photon is not only a carrier bringing energy and optical information, but also is a particle occupied fixed space size. (2) When a photon happened reflection, refraction, scattering, etc., only changed its energy and optical information carried, its particle size doesn't change. g (DOT) p_photon equals constant. Using these two basic laws to PSTM, the `evanescent field' is practically a weak photon distribution field and the detecting fiber tip diameter is practically a `gate' which size controlled the photon numbers into fiber tip. Passing through some calculation and inference, the following three conclusions can be given: (1) Under the PSTM's detection system sensitivity is high enough, the diameter D of detecting fiber tip and the near field detecting distance Z are the two most important factors to decide the subwavelength resolution of PSTM. (2) The limiting of PSTM's resolution will be given upon the conditions of D equals p_photon and Z equals p_photon, where p_photon is one photon size. (2) The final resolution limit R of PSTM will be lim R equals p_photon, D yields p_photon, Z yields p_photon.

Citation Download Citation

Yanbin Zhu and Junfu Ma "Photon theory hypothesis about photon tunneling microscope's subwavelength resolution", Proc. SPIE 2535, Near-Field Optics, (6 September 1995); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.218685

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KEYWORDS

Photonic microstructures

Single photon

Near field optics

Microscopes

Particles

Image resolution

Optical fibers

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