RESEARCH

The Confocal Raman-Scanning Nearfield Optical Microscope integrates three technologies: Raman microscopic imaging, atomic force microscopic imaging, and reflective near-field optical scanning microscopic imaging. It is an optical microscope based on scanning probe imaging. The probe-based scanning near-field optical microscope overcomes the low resolution in the traditional optical microscopes and the sample damage in the scanning electron microscopes and scanning tunneling microscopes. It breaks through the optical diffraction limit, and combines the spectroscopy and time-resolution technologies to achieve nano-scale imaging. Compared to the scanning electron microscope, its acquisition and maintenance costs are lower, and it combines the optical properties of materials for multi-physics coupling characterization. The microscopic imaging system realizes Raman microscopic imaging, atomic force microscopic imaging, and near-field optical scanning microscopic imaging simultaneously in the same system through scanning probe imaging. These three imaging functions are independent of each other and can be directly used by switching the lenses without moving the samples.