SURFACE-PLASMON MICROSCOPE WITH AN ELECTRONIC ANGULAR SCANNING

A microscope using surface plasmon resonance is described, which delivers two-dimensional distributions of refractive indices of dielectric specimens' surfaces with high sensitivity. In this microscopy a dielectric specimen is attached on a silverfilm deposited glass prism and a focused beam is incident on its surface instead of a collimated one used earlier. A photodiode array directly and quickly measures reflectivity dependence on the incident angle without any mechanical scanning. The dip angle for the reflectivity leads to refractive index of the specimen. The reflectivity curve for a focused beam is theoretically deduced. In experiments where the incident point is scanned over an area, we displayed the image representing the distribution of refractive index at the surface of optical waveguides.