Identification of a resonant imaging process in apertureless near-field microscopy.

We report on apertureless near-field microscopy in the far infrared. We identify a configurational resonance of the scanning tip-surface system to be the dominating mechanism that forms the image. Experimental data such as the high imaging contrast and its spectral properties can be well explained and make the framework of a mesoscopic resonance an alternative to conventional scattering models that are used to interpret near-field data. Our findings are plausibly not restricted to the far infrared and may impact on near-field spectroscopy in general.