Surface analysis II. Surface‐plasmon enhanced resolution in optical microscopy

Methods of improving the resolution of optical microscopes which involve, for example, forcing the light through an aperture which is smaller than the wavelength of the light (see Figure) or the coupling of the light to a plasmon to form a surface‐plasmon polariton are described. The latter method is particularly suitable for determining, for example, the optical thickness of an ultrathin transparent film with high precision on a micron scale. equation image