near-field microscopy

physics

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July 21, 2026

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Near-field microscopy uses light waves near a material's surface to create images with higher resolution than conventional optical microscopy. Conventional optical microscopy has a resolution limit of about 200 nanometers. Near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) surpasses this diffraction limit, allowing visualization of nanoscale features. NSOM achieves lateral resolutions of about 20 nanometers and axial resolutions of 2 to 5 nanometers, making it a type of superresolution microscopy.12

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Eric Betzig
At Cornell he worked on near-field microscopy, which uses light waves near a material’s surface to obtain images of a higher resolution than can be achieved with conventional optical microscopy, which has a resolution limit (discovered by German physicist Ernst Abbe in 1873) of about 200 nanometers (nm) for the…
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At Cornell he worked on near-field microscopy, which uses light waves near a material’s surface to obtain images of a higher resolution than can be achieved with conventional optical microscopy, which has a resolution limit (discovered by German physicist Ernst Abbe in 1873) of about 200 nanometers (nm) for the…
Read More