Abstract

Polarization controlled illumination in Raman spectroscopy is of tremendous advantage as it allows one to study highly directional intrinsic properties of a sample [1]. Tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS) microscopy, which realizes Raman imaging at super spatial resolution beyond the diffraction limit owing to the resonant excitation of localized surface plasmon polaritons at the tip apex [2,3], has the potential to achieve such polarization imaging at nanoscale. However, neither evaluation nor control of the polarization properties of near-field light in TERS is as straightforward as in usual far-field illumination, because the polarization of near-field light is influenced by the random shape, size and orientation of the metallic nanostructure attached to the apex of the tip used in TERS.

© 2014 Japan Society of Applied Physics, Optical Society of America