Although the apertureless mode is more promising than the aperture mode, the latter is more widely used because of easier instrumental setup and operation. To obtain a high resolution Raman micrograph/spectrum, the following conditions should be met: (1) the size of the aperture must be on the order of the wavelength of the excitation light. (2) The distance from the tip of the probe to the sample must be smaller than excitation wavelength. (3) The instrument must remain stable over a long time. An important AFM feature is the ability to accurately control the distance between the sample and probe tip, which is the reason why the AFM-Raman combination is preferred for realizing Raman-NSOM.