Patent ID: 9404855
Filing Date: 2016-08-02
CPC Classification: B82Y,G01B,G01N,G01Q

Claim Text:
1. An apparatus for measuring an absorption spectrum of nanoscale objects, comprising: a) a scanning atomic force microscope, a lock-in amplifier connected to said scanning atomic force microscope, a computer controller connected to said lock-in amplifier, a detector for detecting electromagnetic radiation connected to said lock-in amplifier, a coherent light source which emits a coherent beam of light; b) an interferometer integrated with said atomic force microscope, said coherent light source and said detector, said interferometer having a reference arm and a sample arm, the interferometer being positioned for directing light along the sample arm from said coherent light source to a sample mounted on a scanning stage of said scanning atomic force microscope and for directing a light beam scattered from the sample and a scanning probe tip of said atomic force microscope into said detector, said interferometer also being positioned for directing a light beam along the reference arm from said coherent light source to a position adjustable reflector and directing a light beam reflected from said adjustable reflector to recombine with said scattered light beam into said detector; c) a positioning mechanism for adjusting and maintaining a position of the adjustable reflector to give a relative optical phase difference between said light beams in said reference arm and said sample arm to be one of in a range from about 0.4π to about 0.6π, or −0.4π to about −0.6π; d) wherein said lock-in amplifier is configured to receive a reference frequency from said atomic force microscope and an output voltage signal from said detector and, based on said reference frequency and said output voltage signal, demodulate said output voltage signal into harmonic components and relaying second and higher harmonic components to said computer controller which is programmed with instructions to form an apertureless near-field scanning optical microscope image of said nanoscale objects.