2024/05/31 by Tom Vincent, Vincent, Tom, Xinyun Liu +13 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Integrated Circuits and Semiconductor Failure Analysis #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Near-Field Optical Microscopy #Optics (physics.optics) #Semiconductor Quantum Structures and Devices
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2405.20948
openalex publication_date 2024/05/31 · openalex created_date 2024/06/04 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) is a powerful technique for extreme subwavelength imaging and spectroscopy, with around 20 nm spatial resolution. But quantitative relationships between experiment and material properties requires modelling, which can be computationally and conceptually challenging. In this work, we present snompy an open-source Python library which contains implementations of two of the most common s-SNOM models, the finite dipole model (FDM) and the point dipole model (PDM). We show a series of typical uses for this package with demonstrations including simulating nano-Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra and recovering permittivity from experimental s-SNOM data. We also discuss the challenges faced with this sort of modelling, such as competing descriptions of the models in literature, and finite size effects. We hope that snompy will make quantitative s-SNOM modelling more accessible to the wider research community, which will further empower the use of s-SNOM for investigating nanoscale material properties.