Abstract
Polarization properties of apertureless-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (a-SNOM) were measured experimentally and were also analyzed using a finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation. Our study reveals that the polarization properties in the a-SNOM are maintained and the a-SNOM works as a wave plate expressed by a Jones matrix. The measured signals obtained by the lock-in detection technique could be decomposed into signals scattered from near-field region and background signals reflected by tip and sample. Polarization images measured by a-SNOM with an angle resolution of 1° are shown. FDTD analysis also reveals the polarization properties of light in the area between a tip and a sample are p-polarization in most of cases.