TY - JOUR
T1 - Infrared scanning near-field optical microscopy below the diffraction limit
AU - Sanghera, Jasbinder S.
AU - Aggarwal, Ishwar D.
AU - Cricenti, Antonio
AU - Generosi, Renato
AU - Luce, Marco
AU - Perfetti, Paolo
AU - Margaritondo, Giorgio
AU - Tolk, Norman H.
AU - Piston, David
PY - 2008/9
Y1 - 2008/9
N2 - Infrared scanning near-field optical microscopy (IR-SNOM) is an extremely powerful analytical instrument since it combines IR spectroscopy's high chemical specificity with SNOM's high spatial resolution. In order to do this in the infrared, specialty chalcogenide glass fibers were fabricated and their ends tapered to generate SNOM probes. The fiber tips were installed in a modified near-field microscope and both inorganic and biological samples illuminated with the tunable output from a free-electron laser located at Vanderbilt University. Both topographical and IR spectral images were simultaneously recorded with a resolution of ∼50 and ∼100 nm, respectively. Unique spectroscopic features were identified in all samples, with spectral images exhibiting resolutions of up to λ/60, or at least 30 times better than the diffraction limited lens-based microscopes. We believe that IR-SNOM can provide a very powerful insight into some of the most important biomedical research topics.
AB - Infrared scanning near-field optical microscopy (IR-SNOM) is an extremely powerful analytical instrument since it combines IR spectroscopy's high chemical specificity with SNOM's high spatial resolution. In order to do this in the infrared, specialty chalcogenide glass fibers were fabricated and their ends tapered to generate SNOM probes. The fiber tips were installed in a modified near-field microscope and both inorganic and biological samples illuminated with the tunable output from a free-electron laser located at Vanderbilt University. Both topographical and IR spectral images were simultaneously recorded with a resolution of ∼50 and ∼100 nm, respectively. Unique spectroscopic features were identified in all samples, with spectral images exhibiting resolutions of up to λ/60, or at least 30 times better than the diffraction limited lens-based microscopes. We believe that IR-SNOM can provide a very powerful insight into some of the most important biomedical research topics.
KW - Infrared fibers
KW - Spectroscopy
KW - Tapered fiber tips
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=53349108059&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/JSTQE.2008.928166
DO - 10.1109/JSTQE.2008.928166
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:53349108059
SN - 1077-260X
VL - 14
SP - 1343
EP - 1352
JO - IEEE Journal on Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics
JF - IEEE Journal on Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics
IS - 5
M1 - 4636777
ER -