Thermal and photo thermal imaging on a sub 100 nanometer scale

A review is made of progress in high resolution near field thermal imaging. The Scanning Thermal Profiler, initially demonstrated as a surface profiler, has profiled aluminum films with sub 100 nanometer resolution. More recently, the thermal sensor has been used to map current induced heating of a surface with comparable resolution. Finally, photothermal imaging of laser heated surfaces has been demonstrated, with image structure well below 100 nanometers.