Patent ID: 9658247
Date: 2017-05-23
CPC Classifications: G01N,G01Q

Claim:
1. A method of measuring an optical property of a sub micrometer region of a sample comprising the steps of: a. Interacting a probe tip of a probe microscope with a region of the sample; b. Illuminating the sample with a beam of light from at least one tunable source with a center wavelength λ such that light is scattered from the probe-sample interaction region; c. Interfering a reference beam with the scattered light, wherein the reference beam has an adjustable relative phase; d. Collecting with a detector at least a portion of the light resulting from the interference between the scattered light and the reference beam; e. Sweeping the relative phase to create an inteferogram; f. Comparing a property of the inteferogram measured on the region of the sample with a property of a reference interferogram to obtain a relative measurement of the scattered light; g. Repeating steps a-f at a plurality of center wavelengths.