Towards Augmenting Tip-Enhanced Nanoscopy with Optically Resolved Scanning Probe Tips

TL;DR

This paper advances tip-enhanced nanoscopy by developing specialized probes with known optical properties, aiming to improve imaging speed and accuracy in nanoscale optical characterization.

Contribution

It introduces a flexible framework for fabricating and modeling TEN probes with tailored optical properties, enhancing their performance and application scope.

Findings

Demonstrated fabrication of specialized TEN probes

Modeled optical properties of the new probes

Potential for improved imaging protocols

Abstract

A thorough understanding of biological species and of emerging nanomaterials requires, among others, their in-depth characterization with optical techniques capable of nano-resolution. Nanoscopy techniques based on tip-enhanced optical effects have gained over the past years tremendous interest given their potential to probe various optical properties with resolutions depending on the size of a sharp probe interacting with focused light, irrespective of the illumination wavelength. Although their popularity and number of applications is rising, tip-enhanced nanoscopy techniques (TEN) still largely rely on probes that are not specifically developed for such applications, but for Atomic Force Microscopy. This cages their potential in many regards, e.g. in terms of signal-to-noise ratio, attainable image quality, or extent of applications. In this article we place first steps towards next-gen TEN, demonstrating the fabrication and modelling of specialized TEN probes with known optical properties. The proposed framework is highly flexible and can be easily adjusted to be of o benefit to various types of TEN techniques, for which probes with known optical properties could potentially enable faster and more accurate imaging via different routes, such as direct signal enhancement or novel signal modulation strategies. We consider that the reported development can pave the way for a vast number of novel TEN imaging protocols and applications, given the many advantages that it offers.