A nanoscale probe for dynamic-chemical imaging
Abstract
Sight has long been one of mankind s most relied-upon senses for attempting to understand the natural world. However, the optical diffraction limit of visible light ordinarily limits the spatial resolution of conventional imaging techniques, such as white-light microscopy, to approximately 250 300nm. This fundamentally restricts our ability to visualize objects at the nanometer scale while retaining spectroscopic (i.e., molecular or atomic) information about the sample. A number of imaging techniques confocal fluorescence and scanning-probe microscopy, as well as others1 3 have been developed to overcome this limitation. While these methods have been powerful tools for studying the nanoscale world, they have their own limitations. They are generally restricted to imaging fluorescent or fluorescently labeled samples, or they require lengthy imaging times hours or days to produce high-quality images of microscopic areas. These long imaging times are driven by the need to move a tiny probe tip over all parts of a microscopic specimen.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2011
- Accession Number
- ADA553576
Entities
People
- Brian M. Cullum
- John Kiser
- Mikella Hankus
Organizations
- University of Maryland, Baltimore