FDTD Study of the Surface Waves Detection in Apertureless Scanning Near-Field Microscopy

Recent studies have shown the importance of surface waves in heat transfer near interfaces. The scanning near field optical microscopy (SNOM) provides an experimental tool to investigate the thermal electromagnetic field near surfaces. In this work, we present a three dimensional model of SNOM devices. This model is based on the finite-difference-time domain (FDTD) method associated to a near to far field transformation. Near field and far field scattered by a silicon tetrahedral tip and by a pecfectly conducting one are presented and discussed.