Patent 7012687 was granted and assigned to Lucent Technologies Inc. on March, 2006 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An apparatus includes an optical fiber and a light collection device. The optical fiber has an untapered segment and a down-tapered segment. The light collection device has an optical aperture that collects light emitted by a sample in response to the sample being located outside and adjacent a lateral surface of the down-tapered segment. The optical aperture blocks light emitted from ends of the optical fiber.