Nanonics Single Gold Nanoparticle Probe at the tip of a cantilevered glass probe with free optical axis.

Nanonics Imaging Ltd has introduced a unique probe with a single gold nanoparticle at the tip of a cantilevered glass structure. The probe is for use in Nanonics MultiView AFM and NSOM systems which can be transparently combined with standard microRaman Systems based on upright or inverted microscopes.

The probe with its exposed tip geometry allows for ease of illumination of the gold nanoparticle from above, below or from any side. It is therefore compatible with all Nanonics SPM platforms including their recently introduced innovative Multiprobe Scanned Probe Microscopy Systems. Such SPM probes have been shown to have excellent characteristics for tip enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) and other apertureless near-field optical measurements based on plasmonic interactions. TERS enhancements of up to 10⁵ are seen with such probes.

The probes provide an exceptional platform for chemical functionalization. Applications range from semiconductor strained silicon nanocharacterization to characterization of molecularly based structures for biological and non-biological objectives and plasmonic device manipulations.