Ultra-sensitive absorption microscope
Our unique and completely new label-free microscope makes minuscule absorption of single nanoscale
particles and defects visible, pushing the sensitivity of conventional absorption measurements by a factor of 1000. This enables research, process optimization and quality control in nanotechnology, material science, and
the life sciences on a new level.
Features
Our fundamentally new microscopy technique enables detection and characterization of many nanoscale materials for the first time
Ultra-sensitive
Reveal weak absorption signals and map tiny variations in absorption and discover so far invisible optical properties and distributions in nanoscale matter.
Quantitative
Measure absolute absorption and scattering cross sections of nanoscale matter.
Spectrally resolved
Perform absorption spectroscopy at the parts-per-billion level on
individual nanosystems (absorption below 0.0001% can be measured).
Fast imaging & time resolved measurements
Absorption on the parts-per-million level can be imaged in real-time.
Furthermore, time resolved measurements at a single point can be performed with 1µs time
resolution.
Applications
Nanotechnology
Analyze nanoscale matter on the single particle level. Speed up quality control and see the tiniest contamination.
Optical coatings
Ultra-high reflective mirrors for high power applications or ultra-low loss resonators can be analyzed for defects, absorption or wavefront errors.
Use our technology as a Pilot User
Be the first to try our new technology by becoming a pilot user. We will work together with you to make visible what has been hidden so far. Just contact us!
Examples
A large variety of materials can be imaged and measured in our microscope and be prepared using spin-coating, drop casting, stamping, ....
Defects
Absolute absorption cross sections of atomistic defects can be measured
Carbon nanotubes
Visualize and perform absorption spectroscopy on single carbon nanotubes
2D materials
See variations of absorption, scattering and polarization on 0.0001% levels in atomically thin materials
Your material
Contact us to get new insights into your material and your research area!
Tissue & Sections
Image few nm-thick sections of tissue or ultra-thin sections of cells.
Nano-particles
Measure presence, spectra, distribution and location of nanoparticles, e.g. nm-sized gold or Perovskites.
Technology: Scanning cavity microscopy
Principle
Measurements
Our measurement method is highly sensitive to
- Absorption
- Scattering
- Refractive index
- Polarization
and can do all this spectrally resolved for fingerprinting.
Scanning cavity technology
How our scanning cavity microscope works:
Resonator-Enhanced Absorption Microscopy
A detailed description can be found in the Article
Seeing the unseen: Boosted absorption imaging and spectroscopy using a scanning microresonator.
Optical resonators consist of two opposing highly reflective mirrors,
between which light forms a standing wave. In other words, light
travels back and forth up to a million times before exiting the
resonator. As a result, the interaction between light and matter within
this resonator can be amplified by many orders of magnitude. Pioneered
in quantum optics, this technology is known for its ultra-sensitive
sensing capability since the many roundtrips of the light in the
resonator enhance various photophysical processes (e.g. absorption,
fluorescence, scattering and dispersion) [4]. Nonetheless, the large
resonator mode of conventional Fabry-Perot cavities and the lack of
control over its position relative to the sample, make them unsuitable
for imaging.
This limitation was overcome by the invention of
microscopic mirrors. These atomically smooth concave micromirrors
are typically fabricated by laser ablation on the end facet of an
optical fiber which is subsequently coated with a highly reflective
dielectric coating. Combined with a planar macroscopic sample mirror at a
distance of only a few micrometers, a resonator is formed. This yields
an almost diffraction-limited mode waist on the surface of the planar
mirror and thereby offers the spatial resolution required for
imaging. Scanning the micromirror over the macroscopic mirror, an
image of the sample can be obtained, where light has interacted with the
sample several thousands of times within each pixel. Due to the
many round trips of the light in the resonator, even weakly absorbing
nanoscale objects on the sample mirror lead to an easily detectable
reduction in the resonator transmission, making even minuscule
absorption (0.0001%) visible.
Funded by the European Union
We are proud that this Project is funded by the competitive European Innovation Council under a EIC Transition Project (Grant agreement number 101146834). This is a program to fund highly innovative Ideas of SMEs to Validate technologies and develop business plans. It supports the maturation and validation of novel technologies from the lab to the relevant application environments.