Abstract

Applications making use of the THz spectrum are growing, with increasing research and interest into the region. It is low energy (0.4 – 40 meV, 30 um-3 mm, 0.1-10 THz) and can be used for probing electronic excitations and rotational and vibrational modes in certain molecules. THz applications include spectroscopy, astronomy, communication and imaging. Near-field nanoscopy allows below the diffraction limit imaging (50 um at 3 THz) to investigate THz properties of samples sub 100 nm. This talk discusses results taken to date with our room temperature THz s-SNOM and the improvements that have been made to improve the stability and noise of the images, meaning it is now capable of imaging sub-20nm features topographically. So far it has only been possible to investigate samples at room temperature and the aim is to adapt current system to work cryogenically at 4.2 K, which will allow investigations of low dimensional quantum objects.