Raman microscopy is becoming increasingly popular, and companies are creating new products that combine Raman with other techniques to analyze samples more efficiently. Some of these products can take co-located Raman and FTIR data, while others combine Raman with optical or topographic information. By having a variety of data types all taken in precisely the same spot, researchers can make more informed decisions.
Molecular Vista primarily focuses on photo-induced force microscopy (PiFM). This technique can simultaneously measure the topography with AFM and the surface chemistry through PiFM with a lateral resolution of better than 5 nm. However, these PiFM instruments also support other optical AFM imaging techniques such as Raman spectroscopy (RS) or photoluminescence (PL).
IR PiFM can provide infrared (IR) data at higher resolutions than any other technique. However, depending on the sample, IR spectroscopy is not always the best choice. For instance, IR spectroscopy probes vibrational modes which is great for many molecules but is not effective on metals. Also, PiFM is excellent in detecting absorption of photons via force measurement, however, emission of photons in processes such as Raman and photoluminescence cannot be converted to force for detection.
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Please click on ‘Request Application Note’ and download the full application note ‘AFM-IR-Raman: Using three techniques for better nano-chemical analysis’.