Nanoscopy

The instrumental focus of this department is the development of molecular spectroscopic methods with the highest spatial resolution. In particular, the application and advancement of the so-called tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS) plays a central role.

In many scientific areas samples have to be analyzed that require a high lateral resolution. Typical examples are cell components and integrated circuits. In both cases, structural sizes are below the possibilities of normal optical microscopic or spectroscopic techniques. Optical near-field microscopy in combination with Raman spectroscopy pushes the achievable resolution significantly below the diffraction limit of standard instruments. The goal of this project is the advancement of this technique to a common and sensitive tool for the analysis of surfaces and boundaries under ambient conditions. At the same time, selected applications such as, for example, heterogeneous catalytic reactions are studied with the available systems. Such application-oriented experiments are important to verify and improve the functions of the instrument and to demonstrate its practicality for “real” problems.