Spanish and German researchers funded by EU programs in support to research and technological development have gone a step further in determining the chemical nature of materials at the nanometer scale. The results of this research may be applied to the chemical identification of of virtually any infrared-active material on the nanometer scale.

The chemical identification of materials at the nanometre scale and mapping of materials has been made possible by a new optical technique called nanoFTIR which combines scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy - s-SNOM, with Fourier Transform infrared - FTIR, spectroscopy. According to the researchers working on the project at the nanoGUNE centre in San Sebastián (Spain), nanoFTIR allows to make more rapid and effective identification of any material.

These results are possible by illuminating the metallic tip of an atomic force microscope (AFM) with a broadband infrared laser, and analysing the backscattered light with a specially designed Fourier Transform spectrometer. This mean researchers can show a local infrared spectroscopy with a spatial resolution lower than 20 nm. In addition nanoFTIR resolution multiplied by 300 a traditional conventional infrared spectroscopy.

According to researchers at the nanoGUNE centre, the high resolution that has been achieved together with the chemical sensitivity, makes this a unique tool for research, development and quality control applications in polymer chemistry, biomedicine and the pharmaceutical industry. This kind of scientific breakthroughs in the field of nanotechnology which are receiving important support through EU Funding, are contributing to the development of new materials and devices that can be applied in diverse fields of electronics, medicine or biomaterials.