Focusing characteristics of optical fiber axicon microlens for near-field spectroscopy: Dependence of tip apex angle

We fabricated axicon microlenses on a single-mode bare optical fiber by using selective chemical etching technique. By varying the concentration and mixture ratios of etching solutions, we could make axicon microlenses with different apex angles (118°, 107° and 90°). We measured the illumination and collection efficiency of these microlenses by both objective-lens imaging and near-field photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy of semiconductor quantum dots with respect to the distance between the sample and the axicon lens probe. We found that axicons with 118° and 107° [90°] apex angle tend to exhibit the laser focusing spot sizes of about 406 and 478 nm [382 nm] and maintain the high [slightly low] collection PL intensity with the distance between the sample and the axicon probe.