Near-field detection of photon emission from silicon with 30 nm spatial resolution

We demonstrate a scanning near-field photon emission microscope (SNPEM) for monitoring photon emission sites with spatial resolution beyond the diffraction limit. Success of SNPEM analysis strongly depends on the sensitivity of photon emission detection. We show that scattering dielectric probe (SDP) is capable of providing both sub-100 nm resolution and compatible sensitivity at emission wavelengths between 1 μm and 1.4 μm. We propose a two step fabrication method which avoids any metal coating and ensures repeatability of parameters of different probes. We also predict that fabrication of SDP from a multi-mode fiber instead of a single mode fiber can significantly improve the collection efficiency of the probe.