Near-field optical microscope image formation: a theoretical and experimental study

A quantitative comparison between theory and experiment has been carried out for a collection-mode near-field optical microscope. A 30-nm (lateral dimension) cylindrical dielectric sample was imaged. This image was compared with the result of theoretical calculations that used a classical macroscopic nonglobal model based on the excitation theorem. Good agreement was obtained, with image inversion, edge enhancement, and edge asymmetry correctly predicted.