Scanning Near-Field Optical Microscopes For Labs

Scanning Near-field Optical Microscopes (SNOM or NSOM) are advanced imaging instruments that overcome the diffraction limit of light to achieve nanometer-scale optical resolution. They work by positioning a very sharp probe or a sub-wavelength aperture extremely close (within tens of nanometers) to the sample surface. This allows the collection or delivery of evanescent (near-field) light that does not propagate into the far field, capturing optical details much finer than conventional light microscopy permits.