Measurement and calculation of the near field of a terahertz apertureless scanning optical microscope

We present measurements and calculations of the terahertz (THz) electric field measured in the near field of a metal tip used in THz apertureless near-field optical microscopy (THz-ANSOM). An analytical model in which we treat the metal tip as a linear wire antenna allows us to predict almost all of the features observed in the measurements, such as the relatively slow decay of the near-field amplitude when the tip-crystal separation increases. When the tip-crystal separation is modulated, in conjunction with lock-in detection at the modulation frequency, a smaller THz spot size is observed underneath the tip. A comparison with analytical expressions shows that in this case the electric field originates predominantly from the tip apex, with negligible contributions from the tip shaft. In the unmodulated case, the observed signal is the spatial integral of the electrooptic (EO) effect over the interaction length between the THz near field and the probe laser pulse. In the modulated case, to a good approximation, we find that the signal is proportional to the value of the THz near field at the surface of the EO crystal only. (C) 2007 Optical Society of America.