Chemistry at the Nanoscale: Recent Advances in Nanoscale Infrared Spectroscopy

Eoghan Dillon, Anasys Instruments, Santa Barbara, USA
Miriam Unger, Anasys Instruments, Santa Barbara, USA

Nanoscale Infrared spectroscopy has been successfully demonstrated in an expanding range of applications in recent years due to significant increases in capability.  One method of nanoscale infrared spectroscopy, atomic force microscope based infrared spectroscopy (AFM-IR) uses the tip of an AFM as a nanoscale detector of the expansion caused by absorption of IR radiation.  AFM-IR can be used to obtain IR absorption spectra and chemical imaging with resolution as fine as the AFM tip radius, >100X smaller than spatial resolution limits of conventional infrared spectroscopy.  The AFM-IR technique has demonstrated improvements in sensitivity, down to the scale of single monolayers, and speed with spectral acquisition times dropping by an order of magnitude.  This presentation will describe the underlying technology and complementary techniques for measuring nanoscale optical scattering, as well as nano-mechanical and nano-thermal analysis.  The presentation will also highlight numerous applications of nanoscale spectroscopy and chemical imaging in physics, materials and life sciences.