Related papers: Theoretical Analysis of Optically Selective Imagin…
Pi-conjugated segments - chromophores - constitute the electronically active units of polymer materials used in organic electronics. To elucidate the effect of bending of these linear moieties on elementary electronic properties such as…
Free electron beams such as those employed in electron microscopes have evolved into powerful tools to investigate photonic nanostructures with an unrivaled combination of spatial and spectral precision through the analysis of electron…
Piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) is a powerful tool widely used to characterize piezoelectricity and ferroelectricity at the nanoscale. However, it is necessary to distinguish microscopic mechanisms between piezoelectricity and…
A novel hybrid method based on Mie theory and the Discrete Dipole Approximation (DDA) was developed to study the microscopic parameters governing the optical response of tunable photonic crystals (PC). The method is based on a two-step…
A simple and robust fiber optical interferometer was developed to non-invasively study the weak piezoelectric effect from thin samples. A biological sample from inter-molt dactyl clubs obtained from the mantis shrimp was used as the test…
High resolution Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy (STM) imaging with functionalized tips is well established, but a detailed understanding of the imaging mechanism is still missing. We present a numerical…
In this work, the tip convolution effect in atomic force microscopy is revisited to illustrate the capabilities of cubic objects for determination of the tip shape and size. Using molecular-based cubic nanoparticles as a reference, a…
The local interaction of charges and light in organic solids is the basis of distinct and fundamental effects. We here observe, at the single molecule scale, how a focused laser beam can locally shift by hundreds-time their natural…
Quantifying the tip-sample interaction at the nanoscale in Amplitude Modulation mode AFM is challenging, especially when measuring in liquids. Here, we derive formulas for the tip-sample conservative and dissipative interactions and…
At optical frequencies, interactions of the electric field component of light with matter are dominating, whereas magnetic dipole transitions are inherently weak and challenging to access independently from electric dipole transitions.…
We describe a technique for mapping the spatial variation of static electric, static magnetic, and rf magnetic fields using a pulsed atomic or molecular beam. The method is demonstrated using a beam designed to measure the electric dipole…
A number of aspects of magnetic force microscopy (MFM) specific to the imaging of hard magnetic films have been studied. Firstly, we show that topographic images made in tapping mode with probes characterized by the moderate cantilever…
The long spin coherence times in ambient conditions of color centers in solids, such as nitrogen-vacancy (NV$^{-}$) centers in diamond, make these systems attractive candidates for quantum sensing. Quantum sensing provides remarkable…
A numerical analysis of the origin of the atomic-scale contrast in Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) is presented. Atomistic simulations of the tip-sample interaction force field have been combined with a non-contact Atomic Force…
Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) allows one to image the domain structure of ferromagnetic samples by probing the dipole forces between a magnetic probe tip and a magnetic sample. The magnetic domain structure of the sample depends on the…
A recent advance in improving the spatial resolution of magnetic force microscopy (MFM) uses as sensor tips carbon nanotubes grown at the apex of conventional silicon cantilever pyramids and coated with a thin ferromagnetic layer. Magnetic…
We demonstrate a simple method to significantly improve the sharpness of standard silicon probes for an atomic force microscope, or to repair a damaged probe. The method is based on creating and maintaining a strong, spatially localized…
Multi-dielectric coated coverslip can be designed to reach large optical field enhancements when working under proper illumination conditions and in total internal reflection. In an objective-based total internal reflection fluorescence…
Extreme field localization and giant field enhancement are often achieved by using plasmonic nanostructures and metamaterials such as strongly coupled silver nanoparticles.Dielectric particles and structures can focus light beyond the…
In this work, we present a novel technique to directly measure the phase shift of the optical signal scattered by single plasmonic nanoparticles in a diffraction-limited laser focus. We accomplish this by equipping an inverted confocal…