Investigation of the light field of a semiconductor diode laser.

Scanning near-field optical microscopy was applied to study, with sub-wavelength spatial resolution, the near- and the far-field distributions of propagating modes from a high-power laser diode. Simple modeling was also performed and compared with experimental results. The simulated distributions were consistent with the experiment and permitted clarification of the configuration of the transverse modes of the laser.

Vibrationally resolved fluorescence from organic molecules near metal surfaces in a scanning tunneling microscope.

Intrinsic molecular fluorescence from porphyrin molecules on Au(100) has been realized by using a nanoscale multimonolayer decoupling approach with nanoprobe excitation in the tunneling regime. The molecular origin of luminescence is established by the observed well-defined vibrationally resolved fluorescence spectra. The molecules fluoresce at low "turn-on" voltages for both bias polarities, suggesting an excitation mechanism via hot electron injection from either tip or substrate. The excited molecules decay radiatively through Franck-Condon pi(*)-pi transitions.

Monitoring statistical magnetic fluctuations on the nanometer scale.

Statistical fluctuations of the magnetization are measured on the nanometer scale. As the experimental monitor we use the characteristic photoluminescence signal of a single electron-hole pair confined in one magnetic semiconductor quantum dot, which sensitively depends on the alignment of the magnetic ion spins. Quantitative access to statistical magnetic fluctuations is obtained by analyzing the linewidth broadening of the single dot emission. Our all-optical technique allows us to address a magnetic moment of only approximately equal 100 micro(B) and to resolve statistical changes on the order of a few micro(B).