Near-field optical studies of semiconductor heterostructures and laser diodes

Near-field optical microscopy and spectroscopy is emerging as a powerful tool for the investigation of semiconductor structures, Tunable excitation combined with sub-wavelength resolution is providing an unprecedented level of detail on the local optical properties of semiconductor structures, Recent near-field optical studies have addressed issues of laser diode mode profiling, minority carrier transport, near-field photocurrent response of quantum-well structures and laser diodes, imaging of local waveguide properties, and location and studies of dislocations in semiconductor thin films, We present results on the intrinsic resolution limitations of near-field photoconductivity in quantum-well heterostructures and demonstrate that the resolution depends strongly on the amount of evanescent and propagating field components in the semiconductor, Spectroscopic mode-profiling of high-power laser diode emission details the spatial dependence of multiple spectral modes, This paper presents an overview of NSOM techniques for semiconductor systems, its limitations, and present status.