Atomic Force Microscopy – Infrared spectroscopy (AFM-IR) is a powerful technique for mapping material composition at sub micrometer length scales. Unlike related technologies such as scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM), the detected signal can be equally sensitive to both chemical and mechanical sample properties due to variations in the cantilever’s response (or responsivity) to a sample perturbation local to the tip. Understanding cantilever responsivity has led to new approaches for correcting this effect, which show improved chemical specificity and imaging fidelity for heterogeneous samples. Here, we present implications of correcting the cantilever responsivity effect in AFM-IR images for studying biological samples at nanometer length scales and discuss the future of this emerging technology.

Date Published: 5 March 2019
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 10891, Nanoscale Imaging, Sensing, and Actuation for Biomedical Applications XVI, 108910A (5 March 2019); doi: 10.1117/12.2510131

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 10891:
Nanoscale Imaging, Sensing, and Actuation for Biomedical Applications XVI
Dan V. Nicolau; Dror Fixler; Ewa M. Goldys, Editor(s)