Vibrational Nanospectroscopy for Biomolecules and Nanomaterials

Yasushi Inouye, Atsushi Taguchi, and Taro Ichimura 

In 1994, we proposed that a metallic needle having a nano-tip at its apex be employed as a nano-light-source for microscopy attaining nanometric spatial resolution [2]. Later, we expanded the technique to Raman spectroscopy for molecular nano-identification, nano-analysis and nano-imaging. In this chapter, we give a brief introduction to local plasmons and microscopy using a metallic nano-needle to produce the local plasmons. Then, we describe the microscope that we built and 

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