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Tip-enhanced fluorescence microscopy at 10 nanometer resolution.

Abstract

We demonstrate unambiguously that the field enhancement near the apex of a laser-illuminated silicon tip decays according to a power law that is moderated by a single parameter characterizing the tip sharpness. Oscillating the probe in intermittent contact with a semiconductor nanocrystal strongly modulates the fluorescence excitation rate, providing robust optical contrast and enabling excellent background rejection. Laterally encoded demodulation yields images with <10 nm spatial resolution, consistent with independent measurements of tip sharpness.

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Jordan M Gerton, Lawrence A Wade, Guillaume A Lessard, Z Ma, Stephen R Quake. 2004-10-28. Tip-enhanced fluorescence microscopy at 10 nanometer resolution.. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.93.180801

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