Sub micron Analysis - Raman/AFM Hybrid technology

HORIBA Jobin Yvon the world leaders in Raman spectroscopy has announced the launch of its new series of LabRAM Raman microscopes compatible with Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) coupling and integration.

The use of Raman microscopy has become an important tool for the analysis of materials on the micron scale. The unique confocal and spatial resolution of the LabRAM series has enabled optical far field resolution to be pushed to its limits with often sub-micron resolution achieved.

The next step to increasingly smaller material analysis on the 200-400nm range has been the combination of Raman spectroscopic analysis with near field optics and an AFM.

The LabRAM HR high performance confocal Raman microscope now has a unique AFM coupling system available which enables the effective coupling of an AFM head to the main Raman system. The hybrid Raman/AFM combination then enables nanometre topographical information to be coupled to chemical (spectroscopic) information as never before. The design enables in-situ Raman measurements to be made upon various different AFM units, and for the exploration of new and evolving techniques such as TERS (tip enhanced Raman spectroscopy). University researchers working with HORIBA Jobin Yvon have recently announced ground breaking results with a spatial resolution in the order of 250nm.

For biological and life science applications the second system in the series is the LabRAM INV, with inverted Raman microscope enables small AFM/SNOM microscope units to be coupled with Raman microscopy. This system with its inverted sampling geometry is ideally suited to the study of transparent biological samples such as single cells, tissue samples and bio-polymers. AFM and SNOM fluorescence measurements can be combined with Raman analysis to provide a more complete characterisation of sample morphology and chemistry on the nanometre scale.