Scientific Achievement
A newly designed microscopy probe uses plasmonic enhancement to capture broadband spectroscopic data with sub-wavelength resolution.
Significance and Impact
So-called “campanile” probe enables nanoscale spectroscopy, revealing details of light-to-electricity conversion and other chemical processes at atomic length-scales.
Research Details
- Light is channeled down a campanile-shaped optical fiber into a surface-plasmon-enhanced field at the tip.
- In a modified atomic-force microscope, the probe delivers both a spatial map and an optical spectrum at each pixel in that map.
- Probe revealed spatially varying optoelectronic properties in indium-phosphide nanowires, and showed how fabrication and surface treatments may alter the nanowires’ photovoltaic properties.
