Diagram method for exact solution of the problem of scanning near-field microscopy

A method is presented for calculating near-field images of nanoobjects from the intensity distributions measured using the scanning near-field optical microscopy technique. The method is based on a formally exact solution of the self-consistent local-field equation, which was derived using the diagram technique for summation of infinite series. It is shown that the self-consistent fields calculated with and without considering the dielectric substrate differ significantly. Near-field images of simple geometric objects-parallelepipeds with various side ratios-are calculated. (C) 2001 MAIK Nauka/Interperiodica.