High-speed tip-enhanced Raman imaging (Presentation Recording)

Abstract

Tip Enhanced Raman Scattering (TERS), a technique that provides molecular information on the nanometer scale, has been a subject of great scientific interest for 15 years. But regardless of the recent achievements and applications of TERS, ranging from material science and nanotechnology, strain measurement in semiconductors, to cell biological applications, the TERS technique has been hampered by extremely long acquisition times, measured in hours, required for collection of reasonably high pixel density TERS maps. In this talk, specifics of the TERS setup that enable fast, high pixel density nano-Raman imaging will be discussed: The innovative integration of technologies brings high-throughput optics and high-resolution scanning for high-speed imaging without interferences between the techniques. The latest developments in near-field optical probes also provide reliable solutions for academic and industrial researchers alike to easily get started with nanoscale Raman spectroscopy. Thanks to those latest instrumental developments, we will present the nanoscale imaging of chemical and physical properties of graphene, carbone nanotubes and self-assembled monolayers of organic molecules, with a spatial resolution routinely obtained in TERS maps in the 15 - 20 nm range and a best resolution achieved being of 7 nm