skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Broadband infrared vibrational nano-spectroscopy using thermal blackbody radiation

Abstract

Infrared vibrational nano-spectroscopy based on scattering scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) provides intrinsic chemical specificity with nanometer spatial resolution. Here we use incoherent infrared radiation from a 1400 K thermal blackbody emitter for broadband infrared (IR) nano-spectroscopy.With optimized interferometric heterodyne signal amplification we achieve few-monolayer sensitivity in phonon polariton spectroscopy and attomolar molecular vibrational spectroscopy. Near-field localization and nanoscale spatial resolution is demonstrated in imaging flakes of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) and determination of its phonon polariton dispersion relation. The signal-to-noise ratio calculations and analysis for different samples and illumination sources provide a reference for irradiance requirements and the attainable near-field signal levels in s-SNOM in general. As a result, the use of a thermal emitter as an IR source thus opens s-SNOM for routine chemical FTIR nano-spectroscopy.

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1240131
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0008807
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Optics Express
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 23; Journal Issue: 25; Journal ID: ISSN 1094-4087
Publisher:
Optical Society of America (OSA)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; near-field microscopy; spectroscopy; infrared

Citation Formats

O’Callahan, Brian T., Lewis, William E., Möbius, Silke, Stanley, Jared C., Muller, Eric A., and Raschke, Markus B. Broadband infrared vibrational nano-spectroscopy using thermal blackbody radiation. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.1364/OE.23.032063.
O’Callahan, Brian T., Lewis, William E., Möbius, Silke, Stanley, Jared C., Muller, Eric A., & Raschke, Markus B. Broadband infrared vibrational nano-spectroscopy using thermal blackbody radiation. United States. https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.23.032063
O’Callahan, Brian T., Lewis, William E., Möbius, Silke, Stanley, Jared C., Muller, Eric A., and Raschke, Markus B. 2015. "Broadband infrared vibrational nano-spectroscopy using thermal blackbody radiation". United States. https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.23.032063. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1240131.
@article{osti_1240131,
title = {Broadband infrared vibrational nano-spectroscopy using thermal blackbody radiation},
author = {O’Callahan, Brian T. and Lewis, William E. and Möbius, Silke and Stanley, Jared C. and Muller, Eric A. and Raschke, Markus B.},
abstractNote = {Infrared vibrational nano-spectroscopy based on scattering scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) provides intrinsic chemical specificity with nanometer spatial resolution. Here we use incoherent infrared radiation from a 1400 K thermal blackbody emitter for broadband infrared (IR) nano-spectroscopy.With optimized interferometric heterodyne signal amplification we achieve few-monolayer sensitivity in phonon polariton spectroscopy and attomolar molecular vibrational spectroscopy. Near-field localization and nanoscale spatial resolution is demonstrated in imaging flakes of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) and determination of its phonon polariton dispersion relation. The signal-to-noise ratio calculations and analysis for different samples and illumination sources provide a reference for irradiance requirements and the attainable near-field signal levels in s-SNOM in general. As a result, the use of a thermal emitter as an IR source thus opens s-SNOM for routine chemical FTIR nano-spectroscopy.},
doi = {10.1364/OE.23.032063},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1240131}, journal = {Optics Express},
issn = {1094-4087},
number = 25,
volume = 23,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Dec 03 00:00:00 EST 2015},
month = {Thu Dec 03 00:00:00 EST 2015}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 15 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

Near-field probing of vibrational absorption for chemical microscopy
journal, May 1999


Nano-optical imaging and spectroscopy of order, phases, and domains in complex solids
journal, December 2012


Near-field microscopy by elastic light scattering from a tip
journal, April 2004

  • Keilmann, Fritz; Hillenbrand, Rainer
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 362, Issue 1817
  • https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2003.1347

Nano-FTIR chemical mapping of minerals in biological materials
journal, January 2012


Nano-FTIR Absorption Spectroscopy of Molecular Fingerprints at 20 nm Spatial Resolution
journal, July 2012


Near-Field Infrared Vibrational Dynamics and Tip-Enhanced Decoherence
journal, March 2013


Structural analysis and mapping of individual protein complexes by infrared nanospectroscopy
journal, December 2013


Nano-Chemical Infrared Imaging of Membrane Proteins in Lipid Bilayers
journal, November 2013


Sub-micron phase coexistence in small-molecule organic thin films revealed by infrared nano-imaging
journal, June 2014


Infrared near-field imaging and spectroscopy based on thermal or synchrotron radiation
journal, June 2014


Infrared Chemical Nano-Imaging: Accessing Structure, Coupling, and Dynamics on Molecular Length Scales
journal, March 2015


Ultrabroadband infrared nanospectroscopic imaging
journal, May 2014


Thermal radiation scanning tunnelling microscopy
journal, December 2006


Thermal Infrared Near-Field Spectroscopy
journal, February 2012


Thermally excited near-field radiation and far-field interference
journal, January 2011


Infrared-spectroscopic nanoimaging with a thermal source
journal, April 2011


Broadband near-field mid-infrared spectroscopy and application to phonon resonances in quartz
journal, January 2012


Recovery of Permittivity and Depth from Near-Field Data as a Step toward Infrared Nanotomography
journal, June 2014


Amplitude- and Phase-Resolved Nanospectral Imaging of Phonon Polaritons in Hexagonal Boron Nitride
journal, June 2015


Normal Modes in Hexagonal Boron Nitride
journal, June 1966


Sub-diffractional volume-confined polaritons in the natural hyperbolic material hexagonal boron nitride
journal, October 2014


Near-field imaging and spectroscopy of locally strained GaN using an IR broadband laser
journal, January 2014


Enhanced dielectric contrast in scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy
journal, August 2000


Vibrational modes in amorphous silicon dioxide
journal, November 2000


Infrared Spectra of High Polymers. III. Polytetrafluoroethylene and Polychlorotrifluoroethylene
journal, September 1956


Infrared reststrahlen revisited: commonly disregarded optical details related to n<1
journal, July 2005


Nanoscale-resolved chemical identification of thin organic films using infrared near-field spectroscopy and standard Fourier transform infrared references
journal, January 2015


Conformational Order and Disorder in Poly(tetrafluoroethylene) from the Infrared Spectrum
journal, September 1973


Subdiffractional focusing and guiding of polaritonic rays in a natural hyperbolic material
journal, April 2015


Nanoscale Probing of Dynamics in Local Molecular Environments
journal, October 2015


Works referencing / citing this record:

Review: Tip-based vibrational spectroscopy for nanoscale analysis of emerging energy materials
journal, January 2018


Hyperspectral infrared nanoimaging of organic samples based on Fourier transform infrared nanospectroscopy
journal, February 2017


Near-field magneto-caloritronic nanoscopy on ferromagnetic nanostructures
journal, December 2018


Comparison of active and passive methods for the infrared scanning near-field microscopy
journal, April 2019


Near-field magneto-caloritronic nanoscopy on ferromagnetic nanostructures
text, January 2019