Breaking the barriers - chemical analysis on the nanoscale

摘要

One of the long term goals of probe microscopy has been to perform bulk type analytical measurements on the nanoscale. While Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) can measure mechanical, electrical, magnetic and thermal properties of materials, the technique has lacked the robust ability to chemically characterise unknown materials. Infrared spectroscopy is the accepted technique for chemical identification and is used in a broad range of sciences and industry to characterise and identify materials via their vibrational resonances of chemical bonds. AFM has been integrated with IR spectroscopy to allow measurement of high quality IR spectra at arbitrary points in an AFM image to give nanoscale chemical characterisation at a resolution not previously available from a commercial instrument.