Damage-free tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy for heat-sensitive materials

Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy with amplitude-controlled tapping-mode AFM

Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) is a powerful tool for analyzing chemical compositions at the nanoscale owing to near-field light localized at a metallic tip. In TERS, atomic force microscopy (AFM) is commonly used for tip position control. AFM is often controlled under the contact mode for TERS, whereas the tapping mode, which is another major operation mode, has not often been employed despite several advantages, such as low sample damage. One of the reasons is the low TERS signal intensity because the tip is mostly away from the sample during the tapping motion. In this study, we quantitatively investigated the effect of the tapping amplitude on the TERS signal. We numerically evaluated the dependence of the TERS signal on tapping amplitude. We found that the tapping amplitude had a significant effect on the TERS signal, and an acceptable level of TERS signal was obtained by reducing the amplitude to a few nanometers. We further demonstrated amplitude-controlled tapping-mode TERS measurement. We observed a strong dependence of the TERS intensity on the tapping amplitude, which is in agreement with our numerical calculations. This practical but essential study encourages the use of the tapping mode for further advancing TERS and related optical techniques.

Low-Background Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Enabled by a Plasmon Thin-Film Waveguide Probe

Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) is a nano-optical approach to extract spatially resolved chemical information with nanometer precision. However, in the case of direct-illumination TERS, which is often employed in commercial TERS instruments, strong fluorescence or far-field Raman signals from the illuminated areas may be excited as a background. They may overwhelm the near-field TERS signal and dramatically decrease the near-field to far-field signal contrast of TERS spectra. It is still challenging for TERS to study the surface of fluorescent materials or a bulk sample that cannot be placed on an Au/Ag substrate. In this study, we developed an indirect-illumination TERS probe that allows a laser to be focused on a flat interface of a thin-film waveguide located far away from the region generating the TERS signal. Surface plasmon polaritons are generated stably on the waveguide and eventually accumulated at the tip apex, thereby producing a spatially and energetically confined hotspot to ensure stable and high-resolution TERS measurements with a low background. With this thin-film waveguide probe, TERS spectra with obvious contrast from a diamond plate can be acquired. Furthermore, the TERS technique based on this probe exhibits excellent TERS signal stability, a long lifetime, and good spatial resolution. This technique is expected to have commercial potential and enable further popularization and development of TERS technology as a powerful analytical method.

Raman cell imaging with boron cluster molecules conjugated with biomolecules

Raman spectroscopic measurements and theoretical calculation revealed that the Raman bands corresponding to the B–H stretching vibrations of two types of simple icosahedral boron clusters, ortho-carborane 3 and closo-dodecaborate 4 appeared at approximately 2450–2700 cm⁻¹, and did not overlap with those of cellular components. Although ortho-carborane 3 possesses a possible property as a Raman probe, it was difficult to measure Raman imaging in the cell due to its poor water solubility. In fact, ortho-carborane derivative 6, which internally has an alkyne moiety, exhibited very weak Raman signals of the C Created by potrace 1.16, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2019 ]]> C stretching and the B–H stretching vibrations were barely detected at a 400 ppm boron concentration in HeLa cells. In contrast, closo-dodecaborate derivatives such as BSH (5) were found to be a potential Raman imaging probe cluster for target molecules in the cell. BSH-conjugated cholesterol 7 (BSH-Chol) was synthesized and used in Raman imaging in cells. Raman imaging and spectral analysis revealed that BSH-based Raman tags provide a versatile platform for quantitative Raman imaging.

We performed Raman cell imaging using boron clusters.

PIP2 Phospholipid-Induced Aggregation of Tau Filaments Probed by Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

The morphology and secondary structure of peptide fibers formed by aggregation of tubulin-associated unit (Tau) fragments (K18), in the presence of the inner cytoplasmic membrane phosphatidylinositol component (PIP₂ ) or heparin sodium (HS) as cofactors, are determined with nanoscale (<10 nm) spatial resolution. By means of tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS), the inclusion of PIP₂ lipids in fibers is determined based on the observation of specific C=O ester vibration modes. Moreover, analysis of amide I and amide III bands suggests that the parallel β-sheet secondary structure content is lower and the random coil content is higher for fibers grown from the PIP₂ cofactor instead of HS. These observations highlight the occurrence of some local structural differences between these fibers. This study constitutes the first nanoscale structural characterization of Tau/phospholipid aggregates, which are implicated in deleterious mechanisms on neural membranes in Alzheimer's disease.

Plasmon-Mediated Drilling in Thin Metallic Nanostructures

Thin and ultraflat conductive surfaces are of particular interest to use as substrates for tip-enhanced spectroscopy applications. Tip-enhanced spectroscopy exploits the excitation of a localized surface plasmon resonance mode at the apex of a metallized atomic force microscope tip, confining and enhancing the local electromagnetic field by several orders of magnitude. This allows for nanoscale mapping of the surface with high spatial resolution and surface sensitivity, as demonstrated when coupled to local Raman measurements. In gap-mode tip-enhanced spectroscopy, the specimen of interest is deposited onto a flat metallic surface and probed by a metallic tip, allowing for further electromagnetic confinement and subsequent enhancement. We investigate here a geometry where a gold tip is used in conjunction with a silver nanoplate, thus forming a heterometallic platform for local enhancement. When irradiated, a plasmon-mediated reaction is triggered at the tip-substrate junction due to the enhanced electric field and the transfer of hot electrons from the tip to the nanoplate. This resulting nanoscale reaction appears to be sufficient to ablate the thin silver plates even under weak laser intensity. Such an approach may be further exploited for patterning metallic nanostructures or photoinduced chemical reactions at metal surfaces.

In Situ Electrochemical Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy with a Chemically Modified Tip

Chemically modified tips in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) have been used to improve the imaging resolution or provide richer chemical information, mostly in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) environments. Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) is a nanoscale spectroscopic technique that already provides chemical information and can provide subnanometer spatial resolution. Chemical modification of TERS tips has mainly been focused on increasing their lifetimes for ambient and in situ experiments. Under UHV conditions, chemical functionalization has recently been carried out to increase the amount of chemical information provided by TERS. However, this strategy has not yet been extended to in situ electrochemical (EC)-TERS studies. The independent control of the tip and sample potentials offered by EC-STM allows us to prove the in situ functionalization of a tip in EC-STM-TERS. Additionally, the Raman response of chemically modified TERS tips can be switched on and off at will, which makes EC-STM-TERS an ideal platform for the development of in situ chemical probes on the nanoscale.