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Updated: Jul 19, 2026
Assembly, Tuning and Use of an Apertureless Near Field Infrared Microscope for Protein Imaging
Published on: November 25, 2009
Infrared imaging of single nanoparticles via strong field enhancement in a scanning nanogap
A Cvitkovic1, N Ocelic, J Aizpurua
1Nano-Photonics Group, Max-Planck-Institut für Biochemie, 82152 Martinsried, Germany.
Abstract:
We demonstrate nanoscale resolved infrared imaging of single nanoparticles employing near-field coupling in the nanoscopic gap between the metal tip of a scattering-type near-field optical microscope and the substrate supporting the particles. Experimental and theoretical evidence is provided that highly reflecting or polariton-resonant substrates strongly enhance the near-field optical particle contrast. Using Si substrates we succeeded in detecting Au particles as small as 8 nm (
