scholarly journals Ultrafast chemical imaging by widefield photothermal sensing of infrared absorption

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (7) ◽  
pp. eaav7127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yeran Bai ◽  
Delong Zhang ◽  
Lu Lan ◽  
Yimin Huang ◽  
Kerry Maize ◽  
...  

Infrared (IR) imaging has become a viable tool for visualizing various chemical bonds in a specimen. The performance, however, is limited in terms of spatial resolution and imaging speed. Here, instead of measuring the loss of the IR beam, we use a pulsed visible light for high-throughput, widefield sensing of the transient photothermal effect induced by absorption of single mid-IR pulses. To extract these transient signals, we built a virtual lock-in camera synchronized to the visible probe and IR light pulses with precisely controlled delays, allowing submicrosecond temporal resolution determined by the probe pulse width. Our widefield photothermal sensing microscope enabled chemical imaging at a speed up to 1250 frames/s, with high spectral fidelity, while offering submicrometer spatial resolution. With the capability of imaging living cells and nanometer-scale polymer films, widefield photothermal microscopy opens a new way for high-throughput characterization of biological and material specimens.

2005 ◽  
Vol 886 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter M. Mayer ◽  
Rajeev J. Ram

ABSTRACTThis paper presents the first cross-plane thermoreflectance image of the temperature distribution in a thermoelectric (TE) element under bias. Using the technique of lock-in CCD thermoreflectance imaging, we can map the temperature distribution of an operational device with submicron spatial resolution and a temperature resolution of 10 mK. As such it offers a complete picture of the quasi-equilibrium transport within the device. The submicron resolution of the thermoreflectance image enables clear determination of localized heating due at interfaces - for example to due contact resistance - and thermal impedance mismatch within samples. The high spatial resolution is ideal for the characterization of thin-film thermoelectric materials where data from conventional techniques (such as the transient Harman method) are difficult to interpret. This paper also presents the first thermoreflectance data we are aware of for BiTe-based material systems. Identification and separation of the Peltier and Joule components of the heating are possible, and finite difference simulations of the devices are presented for comparison with experiment. In this way it is possible to simultaneously acquire information about the Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, and thermal conductivity of the thermoelectric material. The measurements demonstrate the feasibility of non-contact thermal measurements at the sub-micron scale.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (20) ◽  
pp. eabg1559
Author(s):  
Yeran Bai ◽  
Jiaze Yin ◽  
Ji-Xin Cheng

Mid-infrared (IR) spectroscopic imaging using inherent vibrational contrast has been broadly used as a powerful analytical tool for sample identification and characterization. However, the low spatial resolution and large water absorption associated with the long IR wavelengths hinder its applications to study subcellular features in living systems. Recently developed mid-infrared photothermal (MIP) microscopy overcomes these limitations by probing the IR absorption–induced photothermal effect using a visible light. MIP microscopy yields submicrometer spatial resolution with high spectral fidelity and reduced water background. In this review, we categorize different photothermal contrast mechanisms and discuss instrumentations for scanning and widefield MIP microscope configurations. We highlight a broad range of applications from life science to materials. We further provide future perspective and potential venues in MIP microscopy field.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hai-Chen Wang ◽  
Silvana Botti ◽  
Miguel A. L. Marques

AbstractWe propose an efficient high-throughput scheme for the discovery of stable crystalline phases. Our approach is based on the transmutation of known compounds, through the substitution of atoms in the crystal structure with chemically similar ones. The concept of similarity is defined quantitatively using a measure of chemical replaceability, extracted by data-mining experimental databases. In this way we build 189,981 possible crystal phases, including 18,479 that are on the convex hull of stability. The resulting success rate of 9.72% is at least one order of magnitude better than the usual success rate of systematic high-throughput calculations for a specific family of materials, and comparable with speed-up factors of machine learning filtering procedures. As a characterization of the set of 18,479 stable compounds, we calculate their electronic band gaps, magnetic moments, and hardness. Our approach, that can be used as a filter on top of any high-throughput scheme, enables us to efficiently extract stable compounds from tremendously large initial sets, without any initial assumption on their crystal structures or chemical compositions.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (9) ◽  
pp. e1600521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Delong Zhang ◽  
Chen Li ◽  
Chi Zhang ◽  
Mikhail N. Slipchenko ◽  
Gregory Eakins ◽  
...  

Chemical contrast has long been sought for label-free visualization of biomolecules and materials in complex living systems. Although infrared spectroscopic imaging has come a long way in this direction, it is thus far only applicable to dried tissues because of the strong infrared absorption by water. It also suffers from low spatial resolution due to long wavelengths and lacks optical sectioning capabilities. We overcome these limitations through sensing vibrational absorption–induced photothermal effect by a visible laser beam. Our mid-infrared photothermal (MIP) approach reached 10 μM detection sensitivity and submicrometer lateral spatial resolution. This performance has exceeded the diffraction limit of infrared microscopy and allowed label-free three-dimensional chemical imaging of live cells and organisms. Distributions of endogenous lipid and exogenous drug inside single cells were visualized. We further demonstrated in vivo MIP imaging of lipids and proteins inCaenorhabditis elegans. The reported MIP imaging technology promises broad applications from monitoring metabolic activities to high-resolution mapping of drug molecules in living systems, which are beyond the reach of current infrared microscopy.


Author(s):  
Brian Cross

A relatively new entry, in the field of microscopy, is the Scanning X-Ray Fluorescence Microscope (SXRFM). Using this type of instrument (e.g. Kevex Omicron X-ray Microprobe), one can obtain multiple elemental x-ray images, from the analysis of materials which show heterogeneity. The SXRFM obtains images by collimating an x-ray beam (e.g. 100 μm diameter), and then scanning the sample with a high-speed x-y stage. To speed up the image acquisition, data is acquired "on-the-fly" by slew-scanning the stage along the x-axis, like a TV or SEM scan. To reduce the overhead from "fly-back," the images can be acquired by bi-directional scanning of the x-axis. This results in very little overhead with the re-positioning of the sample stage. The image acquisition rate is dominated by the x-ray acquisition rate. Therefore, the total x-ray image acquisition rate, using the SXRFM, is very comparable to an SEM. Although the x-ray spatial resolution of the SXRFM is worse than an SEM (say 100 vs. 2 μm), there are several other advantages.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Devon Jakob ◽  
Le Wang ◽  
Haomin Wang ◽  
Xiaoji Xu

<p>In situ measurements of the chemical compositions and mechanical properties of kerogen help understand the formation, transformation, and utilization of organic matter in the oil shale at the nanoscale. However, the optical diffraction limit prevents attainment of nanoscale resolution using conventional spectroscopy and microscopy. Here, we utilize peak force infrared (PFIR) microscopy for multimodal characterization of kerogen in oil shale. The PFIR provides correlative infrared imaging, mechanical mapping, and broadband infrared spectroscopy capability with 6 nm spatial resolution. We observed nanoscale heterogeneity in the chemical composition, aromaticity, and maturity of the kerogens from oil shales from Eagle Ford shale play in Texas. The kerogen aromaticity positively correlates with the local mechanical moduli of the surrounding inorganic matrix, manifesting the Le Chatelier’s principle. In situ spectro-mechanical characterization of oil shale will yield valuable insight for geochemical and geomechanical modeling on the origin and transformation of kerogen in the oil shale.</p>


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Le Wang ◽  
Devon Jakob ◽  
Haomin Wang ◽  
Alexis Apostolos ◽  
Marcos M. Pires ◽  
...  

<div>Infrared chemical microscopy through mechanical probing of light-matter interactions by atomic force microscopy (AFM) bypasses the diffraction limit. One increasingly popular technique is photo-induced force microscopy (PiFM), which utilizes the mechanical heterodyne signal detection between cantilever mechanical resonant oscillations and the photo induced force from light-matter interaction. So far, photo induced force microscopy has been operated in only one heterodyne configuration. In this article, we generalize heterodyne configurations of photoinduced force microscopy by introducing two new schemes: harmonic heterodyne detection and sequential heterodyne detection. In harmonic heterodyne detection, the laser repetition rate matches integer fractions of the difference between the two mechanical resonant modes of the AFM cantilever. The high harmonic of the beating from the photothermal expansion mixes with the AFM cantilever oscillation to provide PiFM signal. In sequential heterodyne detection, the combination of the repetition rate of laser pulses and polarization modulation frequency matches the difference between two AFM mechanical modes, leading to detectable PiFM signals. These two generalized heterodyne configurations for photo induced force microscopy deliver new avenues for chemical imaging and broadband spectroscopy at ~10 nm spatial resolution. They are suitable for a wide range of heterogeneous materials across various disciplines: from structured polymer film, polaritonic boron nitride materials, to isolated bacterial peptidoglycan cell walls. The generalized heterodyne configurations introduce flexibility for the implementation of PiFM and related tapping mode AFM-IR, and provide possibilities for additional modulation channel in PiFM for targeted signal extraction with nanoscale spatial resolution.</div>


Author(s):  
Alfred Ludwig ◽  
Mona Nowak ◽  
Swati Kumari ◽  
Helge S. Stein ◽  
Ramona Gutkowski ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
O. Breitenstein ◽  
J.P. Rakotoniaina ◽  
F. Altmann ◽  
J. Schulz ◽  
G. Linse

Abstract In this paper new thermographic techniques with significant improved temperature and/or spatial resolution are presented and compared with existing techniques. In infrared (IR) lock-in thermography heat sources in an electronic device are periodically activated electrically, and the surface is imaged by a free-running IR camera. By computer processing and averaging the images over a certain acquisition time, a surface temperature modulation below 100 µK can be resolved. Moreover, the effective spatial resolution is considerably improved compared to stead-state thermal imaging techniques, since the lateral heat diffusion is suppressed in this a.c. technique. However, a serious limitation is that the spatial resolution is limited to about 5 microns due to the IR wavelength range of 3 -5 µm used by the IR camera. Nevertheless, we demonstrate that lock-in thermography reliably allows the detection of defects in ICs if their power exceeds some 10 µW. The imaging can be performed also through the silicon substrate from the backside of the chip. Also the well-known fluorescent microthermal imaging (FMI) technique can be be used in lock-in mode, leading to a temperature resolution in the mK range, but a spatial resolution below 1 micron.


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