Applications of Phasor Data Analysis on Scattering Scanning Near-field Optical Microscopy Investigations

Investigations by using scattering scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) usually result in acquisition of a pair of two images: amplitude and phase, which hold complementary information about the optical properties of the investigated samples. Phasor diagrams are graphical ways of complex data display and represent an alternative to classical amplitude-phase images for displaying the data contained in the s-SNOM images. In this work we propose applications and directions for rapid analysis of s-SNOM data displayed by means of phasor diagrams based on investigations performed on different sample types: biological, organic, and inorganic materials. Our analysis demonstrates practical uses for phasor diagrams to extract valuable qualitative information from s-SNOM images.