Abstract
We present controllable fabrication of bent near-field optical fiber probes by a combination of laser heating-pulling and electric arc bending, and characterization of their properties. Various probes with bent lengths varying from 350~850μm, bent angles varying from 50° to 90°, and tip diameters ranging between 75 to 150 nm are successfully produced. With quality factors of around 100, these probes can be made into cantilevered probes usable for dynamic mode atomic force microscopy. The achieved lateral resolution on a standard grating is around 165 nm with a 75° probe. After coating the probes with a thin layer of Au film, the transmission efficiencies are measured to be around 10-5~10-6, which are appropriate for near-field optics experiments. A preliminary collection mode near-field image on a laser diode has also been obtained.