attocube systems Inc. | Breaking the optical diffraction limit with AFM-assisted techniques, providing 10-nm of spatial optical resolution in spectral ranges from visible to THz

Booth 1338

"Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is an established technique for characterization and recognition of inorganic, organic and biological materials by their far-field absorption spectra in the infrared fingerprint region. However, due to the diffraction limit conventional FTIR spectroscopy is unsuitable for measurements with nanoscale spatial resolution.
Scattering-type Scanning Near-field Optical Microscopy (s-SNOM) allows to overcome the diffraction limit of conventional light microscopy or spectroscopy enabling optical measurements at a spatial resolution of 10nm, not only at IR frequencies but also in the whole spectral range from visible to terahertz.

s-SNOM employs an externally-illuminated sharp metallic AFM tip to create a nanoscale hot-spot at its apex. The optical tip-sample near-field interaction is determined by the local dielectric properties (refractive index) of the sample and detection of the elastically tip-scattered light yields nanoscale resolved near-field images simultaneous to topography."