AVS 45th International Symposium
    Nanometer-scale Science and Technology Division Wednesday Sessions
       Session NS+AS-WeM

Paper NS+AS-WeM9
Chemical Imaging with Scanning Near Field Infrared Microscopy

Wednesday, November 4, 1998, 11:00 am, Room 321/322/323

Session: Innovative Force, Near-Field Optics, and Tunneling Measurements
Presenter: C.A. Michaels, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Authors: C.A. Michaels, National Institute of Standards and Technology
R.R. Cavanagh, National Institute of Standards and Technology
S.J. Stranick, National Institute of Standards and Technology
L.J. Richter, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Correspondent: Click to Email
The development of a scanning near field microscope that utilizes infrared absorption as the optical contrast mechanism will be discussed. This instrument couples the nanoscale spatial resolution of a scanned probe with the chemical specificity of vibrational spectroscopy. This combination allows the in situ mapping of chemical functional groups with subwavelength spatial resolution. Key elements of the microscope include; an ultrafast IR light source producing pulses with a FWHM bandwidth of 150 cm@super -1@, an infrared focal plane array based spectrometer allowing parallel detection of the entire pulse bandwidth with 4 cm@super -1@ resolution, and a near field probe fabricated from fluoride glass fiber allowing single mode transmission over the range 2.2 to 4.5 µm. Factors influencing the optical and topographic resolution characteristics of this microscope will be presented. Additionally, the performance of the microscope in discriminating chemical species based on their IR optical properties will also be described.