Nanoscale IR Spectroscopy System with advanced temperature and Environment Control

Infrared spectroscopy is one of the most commonly used forms of chemical analysis, but its fundamental spatial resolution limit, has prevented it from being widely applied to the field of nanostructured materials- To address this limitation, nanoscale infrared spectroscopy has emerged combining atomic force microscopy and infrared laser sources to provide chemical analysis with nanoscale spatial resolution- Two primary modes of nanoscale spectroscopy have developed, scattering scanning near- field microscopy (s-SNOM) and photo-thermal induced resonance (PTIR), a technique pioneered by Anasys Instruments- PTIR and s-SNOM are complementary techniques that together enable a more complete characterization of the sample- In recent years, these two techniques have seen extensive development resulting in a growing user base and in many hundreds of publications, with wide reaching applications in materials and life sciences- While proving useful in a broad range of research, the extension of these techniques by allowing operation at a broad range of pressures and temperatures will allow research in more “real life” environments- Anasys Instruments proposes to develop a new ultra-high vacuum (UHV) variable temperature nanoscale infrared spectroscopy system, which will incorporate both the s-SNOM and the PTIR techniques- There is currently no commercially available system which allows s-SNOM and PTIR at UHV or with a broadly varying temperature- There are a small number of s-SNOM systems which have been developed in specialized research laboratories around the world but they have demonstrated minimal scientific impact due to the limited availability and the challenges with the design and operation of these systems- Our proposed instrument will incorporate several improvements to improve performance, enable ease of use and also allow easy integration with a broad range of illumination sources-