For NanoIR measurements, position the atomic force microscope, or AFM, tip on the feature of interest identified from the topography image. Select the tuning fork icon in the NanoIR control panel to determine the contact resonance frequencies of the cantilever. Then set an illumination wave number to excite photothermal expansion in the material.
Next, set a range of laser pulse frequency to sweep and set the duty cycle of the NanoIR laser. Select acquire within the laser pulse tune window. Position the marker bar at the peak to select the second contact resonance of the tip sample system for NanoIR measurements.
Click on the optimized button to align the center of the IR laser focal region with the position of the cantilever tip. Acquire IR laser illumination background. Select the wave number range, step size, and number of averages for the NanoIR spectrum.
Then perform a background correction of the spectra by dividing the photothermal amplitude by the attenuated background. Enable phase locked loop, or PLL, auto tune in the laser pulse tune window. Then adjust the maximum and minimum frequency to create a sweep range centered at the second resonance mode in the general control panel.
Click on zero in the PLL control panel, and then click on okay in the laser pulse tune window. Enable IR imaging by selecting the checkbox of IR imaging enabled in the NanoIR control panel. In the imaging view control panel, choose height, amplitude two, and phase two to acquire the topographical and chemical images of the sample.
Then set the acquisition direction to trace or retrace. Select the scan icon in the AFM scan control panel. Then select the now or end of frame icon in the capture control panel to save the image.
To export the data, right click on the image or spectrum file names within the data lists. Select export, and then choose the file format to export. Finally, save the file in the desired computer folder.
The NanoIR spectrum of polystyrene yielded two IR bands corresponding to the stretch mode of the phenyl moiety at 1, 600 wave number and a subset of the ring stretching at 1, 730 wave number. The NanoIR spectrum of PVA exhibited better agreement with the FDIR spectrum, with the predominant absorption band centered at 1, 730 wave number. The NanoIR spectra were used to select the illumination wave numbers for chemical imaging of the polystyrene bead deposited at the surface of PVA and of the polystyrene bead coated with PVA.
Next, spectra were collected on top of a polystyrene bead covered with PVA at different laser powers. The polystyrene signal at 1, 600 wave number was significantly lower than that of PVA at 1, 750 wave number. However, it was noted that increasing the laser power led to a higher ratio.
