Journal of Microscopy, Vol. 209, Pt 3 March 2003, pp.

205 – 208
Received 10 August 2002; accepted 25 October 2002

Implementation of a short-tip tapping-mode tuning fork

Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

near-field scanning optical microscope

N. H . L U *, C . W. H U A N G †, C . Y. C H E N ‡, C . F. YU §, T. S . K A O †,
Y. H . F U † & D. P. TS A I †
*Department of Electronic Engineering, De Lin Institute of Technology, Tuchen, Taipei County, Taiwan,
23646, R.O.C.
†Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
‡Department of Physics, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
§Institute of Optoelectronic Sciences, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Key words. Near-field scanning optical microscopy, short tip, tapping-mode,

tuning fork.

microscopy (NSOM) has proven a powerful tool in nanometric

Summary
science and technology.
We present the implementation of a short-tip tapping-mode NSOM roughly falls into two categories, depending on the
tuning fork near-field scanning optical microscope. Tapping functionality of the optical fibre probe. In collection mode
frequency dependences of the piezoelectric signal amplitudes NSOM, the fibre probe detects the local signal coupled to the
for a bare tuning fork fixed on the ceramic plate, a short-tip tip aperture. In excitation mode NSOM, instead of acting as a
tapping-mode tuning fork scheme and an ordinary tapping- local detector, the fibre probe serves as a nano-illuminator. By
mode tuning fork configuration with an 80-cm optical fibre bringing the tapered fibre probe into close proximity with the
attached are demonstrated and compared. Our experimental sample surface, the inevitable diffraction limit encountered in
results show that this new short-tip tapping-mode tuning fork conventional far-field optical methods can be overcome.
scheme provides a stable and high Q factor at the tapping Since initial demonstrations that crystal quartz tuning
frequency of the tuning fork and will be very helpful when long forks can be used as sensors for acoustic (Güthner et al., 1989)
optical fibre probes have to be used in an experiment. Both and force (Karrai & Grober, 1995) microscopy, applications of
collection and excitation modes of short-tip tapping-mode tun- this technique have been extended to near-field optical micro-
ing fork near-field scanning optical microscope are applied scopy (Davydov et al., 1999; Crottini et al., 2002), atomic
to study the near-field optical properties of a single-mode force microscopy (Giessibl, 2000; Callaghan et al., 2002), and
telecommunication optical fibre and a green InGaN/GaN electrostatic force microscopy (Seo et al., 2002; Wang et al.,
multiquantum well light-emitting diode. 2002). Recently, we demonstrated the working principles of
the tapping-mode tuning fork near-field scanning optical
microscopy (TMTF-NSOM; Tsai & Lu, 1998) and successfully
Introduction
applied this new method to study the physical properties of a
Advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology advocate rapid single mode optical fibre waveguide (Tsai et al., 1999), super-
progress in new techniques and instruments which have the resolution near-field structures (Tsai & Lin, 2000), and
ability to perform nanoscale fabrication or to offer high spatial semiconductor lasers (Lu et al., 2001).
resolution characterization down to the nanometre dimen- In contrast to conventional optical shear-force mode
sion. Owing to its versatile applications in nanostructure NSOM, the distance regulation between the sample surface
fabrication (Massanell et al., 1996; Herndon et al., 1999), and the cusp of the fibre probe is realized by a non-optical
high density optical (Tsai & Lin, 2000) and magneto-optical and normal-force feedback control method in TMTF-NSOM.
(Fumagalli et al., 1998) data storage analysis, and diagnostics Consequently, TMTF-NSOM saves the trouble resulting from
of low-dimensional semiconductor heterostructures (Eytan elaborate optical beam alignment and interference between
et al., 1998; Eah et al., 2002), near-field scanning optical the near-field optical signal and the force sensing optics, and
provides all the advantages afforded by the tapping-mode ato-
Correspondence: N. H. Lu. Tel.: +886 2 2273 4415; fax: +886 2 2261 1492; mic force microscopy, including high spatial resolution, high
e-mail: [email protected] sensitivity and excellent stability. However, in some cases, the

© 2003 The Royal Microscopical Society

206 N. H . L U E T A L .

friction or the massive load could be a critical issue. For exam- edge of the plate. The ceramic plate is tightly clamped onto and
ple, when an optical fibre longer than 80 cm was used, we mechanically excited by a piezoelectric bimorph. Both the
could hardly sense any appreciable induced voltage difference tuning fork and the fibre tip vibrate in a direction normal to
between the two electrodes of the tuning fork under excita- the sample surface. The Q factor and the resonance frequency
tion. As a result, neither any significant feature of resonance of the tuning fork proper are ≈ 80 000 and 32.768 kHz,
response nor any noticeable change in the feedback signal respectively. The tip protrudes ≈ 1 mm from the fork edge and
as the tip approaches the sample surface could be observed. the short fibre tip is obtained by cleaving the optical fibre half-
Here, we present a new scheme, the short-tip TMTF-NSOM, way between the two prongs. A flat-ended multimode fibre is
in which a cleaved short fibre tip attached to one tine of the then glued to the other prong of the tuning fork with the air
tuning fork is used as the force sensing element, to overcome gap between the end-faces of the short tip and the multimode
the problems mentioned above. optical fibre being ≈ 10 µm or less. All these procedures are
In order to demonstrate the feasibility of this new method, performed with the aid of a precision multi-axis translation
we apply collection and excitation modes of short-tip TMTF- stage and a ×90 stereo optical microscope. Care and patience
NSOM to measure the near-field optical properties of a single- must be exercised in aligning the long axis of the short fibre tip
mode telecommunication optical fibre and a green InGaN/ with that of the multimode optical fibre for efficient coupling
GaN multiquantum well light-emitting diode. of the light. Typical throughput (i.e. output power from the tip
aperture vs. input power through the multimode fibre) of this
configuration is 10−4.
Experimental
The TMTF-NSOM system is based on a commercial atomic
Results and discussion
force microscope (Stand Alone, Park Scientific Instruments).
The force-sensing element consists of a near-field optical fibre Plotted in Fig. 2 are the frequency dependences of the induced
probe attached to a crystal quartz tuning fork. The tapered voltage differences between the two electrodes of the tuning
optical fibre probe was manufactured by pulling a single-mode fork for the following three cases: (a) a bare tuning fork (i.e.
optical fibre while heating locally with a CO2 laser and subse- without any optical fibre attached) fixed on the ceramic plate,
quently immersing the tip in a saturated solution of ammo- (b) a short-tip TMTF scheme and (c) an ordinary TMTF config-
nium bifluoride (NH4F·HF) for a few minutes. The tapers were uration with an 80-cm optical fibre attached. The Q factors
finally coated on the sides by a thin layer of aluminium to con- are obtained by dividing the resonance peak frequency by the
fine the light. Using this procedure, typical aperture sizes with frequency full-width at half-maximum of the piezoelectric
diameters between 50 and 80 nm can be realized. signal amplitude at resonance. As seen in Fig. 2, both the bare
In an attempt to overcome problems resulting from massive tuning fork and the short-tip TMTF show sharp and pro-
load as long optical fibres have to be used in the experiment, nounced resonance peaks at 32.49 and 31.45 kHz with Q
we devised the short-tip TMTF-NSOM. Figure 1 shows a sche- factors 192 and 181, respectively, whereas the piezoelectric
matic of the short-tip tapping-mode tuning fork set-up. The signal of the ordinary TMTF is rather broad. Indeed, when
optical fibre probe is attached perpendicular to the end of one the optical fibre was longer than 80 cm in the ordinary TMTF
tine of the tuning fork, while the other tine is glued to a configuration, we could hardly detect any appreciable induced
ceramic plate with the fork protruding ≈ 3.5 mm from the voltage difference between the two electrodes of the tuning
fork under excitation. In general, the resonance responses
of the bare tuning fork and the short-tip TMTF are similar
because of the light mass of the short fibre probe. We also
found that the resonance frequency response of the short-tip
TMTF is almost independent of the length of the multimode
optical fibre.
To evaluate the functional performance of this new method,
we performed both collection and excitation modes of short-
tip TMTF-NSOM measurements of a single-mode telecommu-
nication optical fibre and a green InGaN/GaN multiquantum
well light-emitting diode. Near-field transverse electromag-
netic mode of a single-mode telecommunication optical fibre
(Prime Optical Fibre Corporation, SMF-1310, operating wave-
Fig. 1. Schematic construction of the tapping-mode tuning fork with length at 1.31 µm and cut-off wavelength at 1.15 µm) fabri-
a short fibre probe. The air gap between the end-faces of the short tip cated by vapour axial deposition process was imaged by the
and the multimode optical fibre is ≈ 10 µm or less. The tuning fork is collection mode of short-tip TMTF-NSOM. The sample is a
mechanically excited by the piezoelectric bimorph. step-index germanosilicate fibre, and the nominal diameters

© 2003 The Royal Microscopical Society, Journal of Microscopy, 209, 205 – 208
 S H O RT- T I P TA P P I N G - M O D E T U N I N G F O R K S N O M 207

Fig. 3. Near-field transverse electromagnetic mode pattern measured at

the cleaved facet of a single mode telecommunication optical fibre excited
by laser wavelengths of 1310 nm (a) and 633 nm (b). The scanned area is
20 × 20 µm2.

Figure 3(b) shows the cross-sectional near-field output of

the single-mode telecommunication optical fibre excited by a
633-nm HeNe laser. As we know, if the propagating wave-
length is shorter than the single mode cut-off wavelength,
the optical fibre becomes multimoded. The modal pattern
indicates that, in this situation, the main higher order guided
modes are LP11 and LP21. The asymmetric intensity distrib-
ution is attributed to the inevitable fibre bend encountered in
the experiment (Syms & Cozens, 1992).
Excitation mode of short-tip TMTF-NSOM is used to perform
the near-field photocurrent (NPC) experiment of an InGaN/
GaN multiquantum well light-emitting diode of emission
wavelength 527 nm. The sample studied was fabricated by
metal organic chemical vapour deposition. The active region
consists of three 25-Å wide In0.5Ga0.5N quantum wells sepa-
rated by 80-Å thick GaN barriers. On top of the active region
were grown 300 Å Mg-doped Al0.12Ga0.88N and 1200 Å
Mg-doped GaN epitaxial layers. The p-electrode is obtained by
evaporating a 150-Å thick Ni/Au film onto the p-type GaN.
NPC was generated by scanning a fibre tip on the top surface of
the sample. A mechanically chopped 633-nm HeNe laser beam
with modulation frequency f = 500 Hz was coupled to the
optical fibre as the pumping source.
Fig. 2. Tapping frequency dependences of piezoelectric signal amplitudes
for a bare tuning fork (i.e. without any optical fibre attached) fixed on a
Figure 4 represents the simultaneously measured surface
ceramic plate (a), a short-tip TMTF scheme (b), and an ordinary TMTF morphology (a) and NPC (b) micrographs of the InGaN/GaN
configuration with 80 cm optical fibre (c). quantum well structure. The scanned area is 10 × 10 µm2 and
the excitation power density is 3.4 kW cm−2. The NPC distri-
bution shows a high contrast region corresponding to the
of the core and the cladding are 9 and 125 µm, respectively. inhomogeneous stripe with a root mean square roughness of
The collection mode is carried out by scanning the probe 2 nm appearing in the central part of the topographic image.
above one end-face of the optical fibre, whereas the other end Because the excitation photon energy (1.96 eV) is smaller
of the fibre is coupled by a laser beam. Figure 3(a) shows the than the band gap energy (2.35 eV), the photocurrent is gen-
near-field intensity distribution of the LP01 mode when the erated by a two-step excitation process via deep energy levels
optical fibre is illuminated at the other end-face by a laser in the gap (Lang & Henry, 1978; Lu et al., 1999). The topo-
diode of emission wavelength 1310 nm. The mode field diam- graphic information alone suggests that the roughness could
eter of the LP01 mode is measured to be 10.0 µm, which is con- be due to non-uniform film growth of Ni/Au or misfit disloca-
sistent with the product specifications. When the light source tions (Jain et al., 2000). However, in combination with the
is replaced by a 1550-nm laser diode, the mode field diameter NPC data, the roughness appearing in the central region can
of the LP01 mode turns out to be 11.0 µm (not shown). be unambiguously attributed to the misfit dislocations.

© 2003 The Royal Microscopical Society, Journal of Microscopy, 209, 205–208

208 N. H . L U E T A L .

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TMTF-NSOM. Our results demonstrate that this new scheme for near field optical microscopes. Appl. Phys. Lett. 66, 1842–1844.
provides a stable and high Q factor at the tapping frequency of Lang, D.V. & Henry, C.H. (1978) Scanning photocurrent microscopy:
the tuning fork and will be very helpful when long optical fibre a new technique to study inhomogeneously distributed recombination
probes have to be used in an experiment. The collection mode of centers in semiconductors. Solid-State Electron. 21, 1519 –1524.
the short-tip TMTF-NSOM is used to image the near-field trans- Lu, N.H., Lin, W.C. & Tsai, D.P. (2001) Tapping-mode tuning-fork
verse electromagnetic mode emanating from the cleaved facet near-field scanning optical microscopy of low power semiconductor
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of a single-mode telecommunication optical fibre. Dominant guided
Lu, N.H., Tsai, D.P., Chang, C.S. & Tsong, T.T. (1999) Optical characteriza-
modes inside the optical fibre excited by laser wavelengths of
tion of visible multiquantum-well semiconductor lasers by collection/
1310 and 633 nm can be well resolved by using this technique.
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applied to perform the sub-band gap excitation NPC experiment Massanell, J., García, N. & Zlatkin, A. (1996) Nanowriting on ferroelectric
of a green InGaN/GaN multiquantum well light-emitting diode. surfaces with a scanning near-field optical microscope. Opt. Lett. 21,
In combination with the NPC data, the spatial inhomogeneities 12–14.
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graph can be unambiguously attributed to misfit dislocations a quartz tuning fork. Appl. Phys. Lett. 80, 4324– 4326.
and nonuniform film growth of Ni/Au, respectively. Syms, R. & Cozens, J. (1992) Optical Guided Waves and Devices. McGraw-
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Acknowledgements near-field optical structure. Appl. Phys. Lett. 77, 1413 –1415.
Tsai, D.P. & Lu, Y.Y. (1998) Tapping-mode tuning fork force sensing
This study was supported by the National Science Council of
for near-field scanning optical microscopy. Appl. Phys. Lett. 73, 2724–
the Republic of China under Grant No. 91-2112-M-237-001. 2726.
Furthermore, this study was supported in part by MOEA under Tsai, D.P., Yang, C.W., Lo, S. & Jackson, H.E. (1999) Imaging local index
Grant No. 91-EC-17-A-08-SI-0006. variations in an optical waveguide using a tapping-mode near-field
scanning optical microscope. Appl. Phys. Lett. 75, 1039 – 1041.
Wang, Z., Bao, J., Zhang, H. & Guo, W. (2002) High-resolution surface
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© 2003 The Royal Microscopical Society, Journal of Microscopy, 209, 205 – 208