| This thesis is an investigation of a new method named sealed-tube etching for fabricating glass fiber tips used in scanning near-field optical microscopy. Two glass tips are formed simultaneously inside the acrylate jacket of an optical fiber that is sealed at the bottom end with plastic prior to etching in hydrofluoric acid. The qualities of the tips generated from this and conventional tube etching methods are compared in terms of their taper length, surface smoothness, as well as time evolution of the tip shapes. Theoretical analysis has been carried out on both tube-etching and conventional meniscus etching to understand the physical etching mechanisms. This thesis work provides more insight into the glass fiber tip etching methods than previously considered. |
