This award supports the development of practical instruments, using the concepts of near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM), and utilizes these instruments for nanometrology applications. The project will be carried out in three phases. In the first phase a near-field scanning optical microscope using visible illumination will be designed, built, and tested. In the second phase an instrument that works in the infrared region will be developed. The infrared instrument will use most of the subsystems that have been previously tested in the visible domain. The two devices will be characterized in the final phase and applied to the measurement of selected engineering surfaces.
