Patent ID: 8248599

Claim:
An optical system comprising a beam generating assembly, an optical microscope assembly, and a signal detection assembly, wherein: the beam generating assembly comprises a laser source and is configured to convert laser output from the laser source into a polarized cylindrical vector beam or a circularly polarized vortex beam as input to the optical microscope assembly; the optical microscope assembly comprises a plasmon-generating optical probe set-up and an objective lens; the beam generating assembly is configured to direct the polarized beam into the plasmon-generating optical probe set-up of the optical microscope assembly; the plasmon-generating optical probe set-up comprises a metal coated, tapered, apertureless tip defining an apex; the apertureless tip is configured to excite surface plasmon waves and direct the surface plasmon waves to the apex of the tip when the polarized beam propagates from the beam generating assembly in the direction of the apex of the tip; and the objective lens is configured to collect near field optical signals from a sample positioned adjacent to the apex of the apertureless tip and direct the near field optical signals to the signal detection assembly.