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  • Review Article
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Visible-to-THz near-field nanoscopy

Nature Reviews Materials volume 10, pages 285–310 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Optical microscopy has a key role in research, development and quality control across a wide range of scientific, technological and medical fields. However, diffraction limits the spatial resolution of conventional optical instruments to about half the illumination wavelength. A technique that surpasses the diffraction limit in the wide spectral range between visible and terahertz frequencies is scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM). The basis of s-SNOM is an atomic force microscope in which the tip is illuminated with light from the visible to the terahertz spectral range. By recording the elastically tip-scattered light while scanning the sample below the tip, s-SNOM yields near-field optical images with a remarkable resolution of 10 nm, simultaneously with the standard atomic force microscopic topography image. This resolution is independent of the illumination wavelength, rendering s-SNOM a versatile nanoimaging and nanospectroscopy technique for fundamental and applied studies of materials, structures and phenomena. This Review presents an overview of the fundamental principles governing the measurement and interpretation of near-field contrasts and discusses key applications of s-SNOM. We also showcase emerging developments that enable s-SNOM to operate under various environmental conditions, including cryogenic temperatures, electric and magnetic fields, electrical currents, strain and liquid environments. All these recent developments broaden the applicability of s-SNOMs for exploring fundamental solid-state and quantum phenomena, biological matter, catalytic reactions and more.

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Fig. 1: Basic concept of s-SNOM for probing material properties and phenomena throughout various length, time and energy scales.
Fig. 2: Basic near-field probing mechanism of scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy.
Fig. 3: Modern dual-path scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy setup.
Fig. 4: Comparison of near-field probing mechanisms.
Fig. 5: Near-field spectroscopic material contrast.
Fig. 6: Analysing near-field optical data by analytical modelling, numerical simulations and data-driven machine learning.
Fig. 7: Scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy setup with distinct sample environments.
Fig. 8: Overview of s-SNOM applications.

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Acknowledgements

R.H. received financial support from Grant CEX2020-001038-M funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and Grant PID2021-123949OB-I00 (NANOSPEC) funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by ERDF/EU. Y.A. acknowledges K.C. Goretta, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) grant number FA9550-23-1-0375 and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, GBMF12246. X.C., M.L. and D.N.B acknowledge support from Programmable Quantum Materials, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences (BES), under award DE-SC0019443. M.L. also acknowledges Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Research at Columbia in van der Waals materials is supported as part of Programmable Quantum Materials, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US DOE, Office of Science, BES, DE-SC0019443. Research at Columbia at charge transfer structures is supported by DOE-BES DE-SC0018426. Research at Columbia in topological materials is supported NSF-DMR DMR 2210186. D.N.B. is a Moore Investigator in quantum materials EPIQS GBMF9455. R.H. thanks F. Keilmann, L. Mester, M. Goikoetxea, A. Govyadinov, I. Niehues and M. Quijada for discussions and feedback on the manuscript. Y.A. acknowledges H. Bechtel, Z.H. Kim, M. Asjad and A. Alu for their constructive input. X.C. and M.L. acknowledge discussions with L. Wehmeier and J. Zhang.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CIC nanoGUNE BRTA and Department of Electricity and Electronics at UPV/EHU, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain

    Rainer Hillenbrand

  2. Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain

    Rainer Hillenbrand

  3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Yohannes Abate

  4. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA

    Mengkun Liu & Xinzhong Chen

  5. National Synchrotron Light Source II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA

    Mengkun Liu

  6. Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Xinzhong Chen & D. N. Basov

Authors
  1. Rainer Hillenbrand
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  2. Yohannes Abate
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  3. Mengkun Liu
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  4. Xinzhong Chen
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  5. D. N. Basov
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Contributions

Y.A. proposed the initial idea and structure of this Review. R.H. completed the main text, with contributions and figures from Y.A., M.L. and X.C., and input from D.N.B. All authors contributed to the selection of key references used in this Review.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Rainer Hillenbrand, Yohannes Abate or Mengkun Liu.

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Competing interests

R.H. is a co-founder of Neaspec, now part of attocube systems, a company producing scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscope systems, such as the one described in this Review. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Reviews Materials thanks Raul Freitas, who co-reviewed with Flavio Henrique Feres, and Eric Muller for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Hillenbrand, R., Abate, Y., Liu, M. et al. Visible-to-THz near-field nanoscopy. Nat Rev Mater 10, 285–310 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-024-00761-3

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