Low cost infrared nanospectroscopy

Infrared spectroscopy is the most widely used technique for chemical characterization with a worldwide market of over $1B annually, but has fundamental spatial resolution limits of at the scale of many microns. Atomic Force Microscope based infrared spectroscopy (AFM-IR) has recently broken this spatial resolution limit using the tip of an AFM to detect IR absorption with spatial resolution >100X better than conventional IR instruments. AFM-IR has already been successfully applied to many applications, including polymer composites and films, photonic devices, organic photovoltaics, fuel cell membranes, and bacteria for biofuels applications and other energy applications. Unfortunately, the high instrument cost, driven by expensive tunable IR lasers (~$150K), has dramatically constrained the adoption of the AFM-IR technique to top tier universities/national labs and very large companies. While demand is increasing for high resolution infrared spectroscopy at DOE and other synchrotron IR beamlines, there has not been a viable technical approach to interface AFM-IR to these synchrotron sources. As such there is a tremendous opportunity to expand the impact of infrared nanospectroscopy if: (1) the AFM-IR technique can be enabled with a much lower cost IR source; and (2) made accessible to synchrotron beamlines. Proposal Approach: Following successful Phase I research, the proposer will develop a new low cost mid-IR source to enable a low cost/high performance AFM-IR instrument, covering the full mid-IR wavelength range. The new platform will employ a low cost thermal source in combination with a novel proprietary technology that enables it use for AFM-IR. This effort will leverage previous investments by DOE that resulted in the development of resonance enhanced AFM-IR that enables detection of IR absorption from nanoscale regions of a sample with improved sensitivity. The Phase I research has demonstrated feasibility of key aspects the proposed system, including the feasibility of the low cost mid-IR source and associated spectroscopic measurements. Phase II efforts will (1) optimize and extend IR modulation techniques developed in Phase I; (2) demonstrate resonance enhanced AFM-IR spectroscopy with the low cost thermal source; (3) build a production prototype instrument suitable for customer sample measurements; and (4) demonstrate low cost infrared nanospectroscopy on real world samples. This project will also interface AFM-IR and s-SNOM capabilities to the synchrotron at the DOE Advanced Light Source. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: The proposed instrument will provide broadly applicable chemical analysis at the nanoscale on an affordable platform. Specifically, it will provide: (1) ~100X improved spatial resolution compared to convention instruments; (2) lower cost than current AFM-IR instruments; and (3) a platform to interface AFM-IR and s-SNOM capabilities to DOE and other synchrotrons. By dramatically reducing the cost of infrared nanospectroscopy (currently affordable only to multi-billion dollar companies and top-tier universities), this project will make a powerful new analytical technique much more widely and will accelerate R&D in diverse fields including polymers, energy, photonics, life sciences, pharmaceuticals and others.