Near-Field Optical Microscopy for Nanophotonics, Materials and Device Innovation

Over the past decade, optical near-field techniques, especially scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM), have experienced significant advancement in response to the growing demand for exploring the nano-world. The wavelength-independent spatial resolution of s-SNOM goes far beyond the fundamental diffraction limit in conventional optics, with numerous applications in material characterization throughout the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Engineering. In this talk, I will start by introducing the study of local properties of materials via nano-imaging and nano-spectroscopy with s-SNOM. Furthermore, near-field optics facilitates the investigation of nanoscale light-matter interactions in the materials. One important topic is the study of confined light-matter waves, known as polaritons, in van der Waals (vdW) materials. I will present my work on developing novel strategies for tailoring polaritons in vdW materials as well as various potential applications.