Researchers zoom in on the nanoscale

Novotny (left) and Hartschuh are investigating ways to create optical images on the nanoscale using a new technique called near-field microscopy.

esearchers at the University have created the highest-resolution optical image ever, revealing structures as small as a few billionths of an inch across. The new method should open the door to previously inaccessible chemical and structural information.

"This is the highest-resolution optical spectroscopic measurement ever made," says Lukas Novotny, assistant professor of optics. "There are other methods that can see smaller structures, but none use light, which is rich in information. With this technique we have a detailed spectrum for every point on a surface."

Since light is so rife with information (everything known about the deep universe comes from teasing information from a tiny amount of light), Novotny and his colleague, visiting professor Achim Hartschuh, can determine what a piece of material is made of as well as its structure. And, in what could be the most rewarding result of the research, the new technique can detect properties of structures previously unknown.

The Rochester team's technique, called near-field Raman microscopy, illuminates the nanosized structures with light, allowing researchers to glean far more information than any other technique. While Novotny and his team are eager to learn if certain structures exhibit unknown characteristics, the ultimate vision for the Raman microscopy project is to revolutionize biology.

"Identifying individual proteins right on the cell's membrane has been the goal of this project from the start," says Hartschuh.

Garnering the cornucopia of information light provides from the proteins on a membrane would mean scientists could understand exactly how a cell's membrane works, opening the door to designer medicines that could kill harmful cells, repair damaged cells, or even identify never-before-seen strains of disease.

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