METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR EVALUATING OPTICAL FIBER PROBE, NEAR-FIELD OPTICAL MICROSCOPE AND NEAR-FIELD OPTICAL PROCESSING APPARATUS

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To evaluate the state of the minute aperture part of an optical fiber probe exerting effect on the luminous intensity of a near-field by a simple constitution before using the optical fiber probe and to always generate near-field light with constant intensity in a near-field optical microscope and a near-field optical processing apparatus. SOLUTION: The tip part 34 of the optical fiber probe 10 is allowed to approach a light scattering substrate 12 and laser beam is inputted to the optical fiber probe 10 to generate near-field light which is, in turn, scattered by the light scattering substrate 12 and the scattered light from the light scattering substrate 12 is detected by a photodetector 26 and the state of the minute aperture part of the tip part of the optical fiber probe 10 is evaluated on the basis of the intensity of the detected scattered light. The intensity of laser beam inputted to the optical fiber probe is controlled by a control device 18 so that the intensity of the scattered light becomes a predetermined value to always generate the constant luminous intensity of the near- field and a near-field light image can be obtained with good reproducibility and near- field optical processing can be stably performed.