Contrast Reversal of Topography Artifacts in a Transmission SNOM

We demonstrate the contrast reversal behaviour of topography artifacts by changing the diameter of the collection diaphragm in a transmission scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM). This originates from the change of the approach curves. Such contrast reversal phenomenon is used to distinguish the artifact signal from the true optical signal of the SNOM image. We also show that continuously changing the diaphragm to a proper diameter can greatly reduce topography artifacts.