Title: near-field scanning optical microscopy
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - near-field scanning optical microscopy
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.09543
Status: current

Definition
Microscopy applied to the investigation of nanostructures that breaks the farfield resolution limit by exploiting the properties of evanescent waves.

Note
NSOM can be used to make nanopatterns.

Related Terms
- nanopatterns: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/09539
- nanostructures: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/09541

Source
- PAC, 2020, 92, 1861. 'Terminology of polymers in advanced lithography (IUPAC Recommendations 2020)' on page 1881 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2018-1215)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/09543/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/09543/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/09543/xml

Citation: Citation: 'near-field scanning optical microscopy' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.09543
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
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Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-04-17T21:07:35+00:00