Using the Nanonics MultiView 1000 AFM, Nanonics' fiber probes and scanning thermal microscopy probes, a team of scientists led by Dr. Gianfelice Cinque at UK's Diamond Light Source (the national UK synchotron facility) coupled AFM to a synchotron IR beamline in order to break the diffraction limit in the IR. For the first time, IR synchotron radiation was used as a broadband source for photothermal IR spectroscopy. They compare two signal transduction measurements of cantilever resonant thermal expansion and scanning thermal microscopy. Very high signal to noise ratios were observed for both methods thanks to the brightness and broadband capabilities of the synchotron IR source, but the authors conclude that the cantilever resonant thermal expansion offered the highest signal to noise ratio.
The Nanonics system featured in the front center of the DLS laboratory.
Data was collected on mammalian cells, a polystyrene film, and a cyanoacrylate sample. Impressive resolution of lambda/12 - far beyond the diffraction limit of lambda/2 was achieved - with 500nm resolution achieved at a 6um wavelength.
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