Near field microscopy nanotubes

Despite the results presented above, near-field microscopy has not been extensively used to characterize polymer/nanotube composites However, it can be noticed that AFM is a useful technique to locally probe the mechanical properties of the composites (at the polymer-nanotube interface for example). One possible reason for the small amount of studies by AFM and STM could be that observing the surface only does not permit to obtain much information on the nanotube dispersion state. For that kind of characterization, transmission electron microscopy is a key technique owing to the small nanotube diameter. 

Hartschuh, A., E.J. Sanchez, X.S. Xie, and L. Novotny. 2003. High-resolution near-field Raman microscopy of single-walled carbon nanotubes. Phys. Rev. Lett. 90 095503. 

Ichimura T, Hayazawa N, Hashimoto M, Inouye Y, Kawata S (2004) Application of tip-enhanced microscopy for nonlinear Raman spectroscopy. Appl Phys Lett 84 1768 Ichimura T, Hayazawa N, Hashimoto M, Inouye Y, Kawata S (2004) Tip-enhanced coherent anti-stokes raman scattering for vibrational nanoimaging. Phys Rev Lett 92 220801 Tanaka S, Maeda Y, Cai L, Tabata H, Kawai T (2001) Application of tip-enhanced microscopy for nonlinear Raman spectroscopy. Jpn J Appl Phys 40 4217 Watanabe H, Ishida Y, Hayazawa N, Inouye Y, Kawata S (2004) Tip-enhanced near-field Raman analysis of tip-pressurized adenine molecule. Phys Rev B 69 155418 Yano T, Verma P, Saito Y, Ichimura T, Kawata S (2009) Pressure-assisted tip-enhanced Raman imaging at a resolution of a few nanometres. Nature Photon 3 473 Yano T, Inouye Y, Kawata S (2006) Nanoscale uniaxial pressure effect of a carbon nanotube bundle on tip-enhanced near-field Raman spectra. Nano Lett 6 1269 Downes A, Salter D, Elfick A (2006) Heating effects in tip-enhanced optical microscopy. Opt Exp 14 5216... 

SD spinodal decomposition SEM scanning electron microscopy SNOM scanning near-field optical microscopy STED stimulated emission depletion SWNT single wall carbon nanotube TEM transmission electron microscopy... 

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