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Cantilever based back-illuminated full body glass tips with thin metal layers can be used as apertureless optical near-field probes with single molecule sensitivity and optical resolutions down to 15 nm exceeding by far the classical diffraction limit of Abbe.
Single molecule Raman spectroscopy of molecules on metal surfaces was achieved by means of optical field-enhancement from a scanning probe tip. This was made possible by the optical antenna configuration formed by optical coupling between metallic tip and the substrate.
A novel instrument for analyzing porous nanostructures will aid the improvement of photocatalysis, which is an important application in industry, for example for water or air purification.
Properties of recently discovered photonic nanojets make them an ideal tool for detecting, differentiating and sorting nanoparticles, researchers at Northwestern University told Nanowerk.