Photon tunnelling microscopy of polyethylene single crystals

Light incident on a total internal reflection surface will tunnel through a submicrometre gap in the presence of a dielectric surface. This tunnelling phenomenon is used in the photon tunnelling microscope to image polyethylene single crystals, providing a topographical map of the single-crystal surface. Tunnelling increases exponentially with sample height and is quantified using video photometry of the grey-scale tunnelling image. © 1994.