Spectroscopic scanning near-field optical microscopy with a free electron laser: CH2 bond imaging in diamond films.
Hydrogen chemistry in thin films and biological systems is one of the most difficult experimental problems in today's science and technology. We successfully tested a novel solution, based on the spectroscopic version of scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM). The tunable infrared radiation of the Vanderbilt free electron laser enabled us to reveal clearly hydrogen-decorated grain boundaries on nominally hydrogen-free diamond films. The images were obtained by SNOM detection of reflected 3.5 microm photons, corresponding to the C-H stretch absorption, and reached a lateral resolution of 0.2 microm, well below the lambda/2 (lambda = wavelength) limit of classical microscopy.
Cricenti
A
A
Istituto di Stuttura della Materia, via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133 Roma, Italy.
Generosi
R
R
Luce
M
M
Perfetti
P
P
Margaritondo
G
G
Talley
D
D
Sanghera
J S
JS
Aggarwal
I D
ID
Gilligan
J M
JM
Tolk
N H
NH