In a study published in Analyst, researchers from the Schools of Chemistry and Physics & Astronomy at the University of Nottingham and the National Physical Laboratory developed, tested and validated a new reference sample for Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (TERS).
TERS – an emerging tool for materials characterisation combining scanning probe microscopy and Raman spectroscopy – enables molecular fingerprint chemical analysis and imaging with nanometre length scale precision (~10 nm) and near-single-molecule sensitivity. It is poised to revolutionise our fundamental understanding of a range of next-generation materials, from drug delivery and medical devices to electronics and batteries. However, in the absence of a suitable reference sample that permits key experimental attributes, such as the sensitivity and spatial resolution of the probes used for measurement, to be assessed, widespread deployment of the technique for materials discovery remains challenging.
Towards this end, led by researchers at the Nanoscale and Microscale Research Centre (nmRC) and utilising bespoke research instrumentation installed at the nmRC funded through a recent EPSRC Strategic Equipment call (EP/V053884/1), the team fabricated and tested a new reference sample comprising a single layer of tungsten diselenide stamped across the interface of a noble metal thin film (either gold or silver) and a dielectric (either silicon dioxide or glass). This simple-to-prepare and ease-to-use material was shown to enable facile benchmarking of TERS probe sensitivity in both common modes utilised for TERS, namely gap and non-gap mode, with potential for universal applicability across the range of instrument configurations typically used for TERS.
The article was published as part of the Analyst HOT Articles 2025 themed collection and selected for front cover artwork to Issue 14 of this year’s edition of the journal.
Posted on Tuesday 22nd July 2025