Article | REF: NM7500 V1

Surface Enhanced Ellipsomteric Contrast (SEEC) microscopy : optical microscopy as a means of nanoscale characterization

Authors: Nicolas MEDARD, Marie-Pierre VALIGNAT

Publication date: October 10, 2011

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ABSTRACT

Currently the nanoscale characterization techniques available on the market are mostly mechanical or electronic techniques that use supports with specific properties. Recently, a study on the modeling of the light path in polarized light led to the development of media to meet the conditions of contrast enhancement. Surface Enhanced Ellipsomteric Contrast (SEEC) microscopy has emerged; it allows a standard light microscope the visualization of layers and thicknesses of nanoscale objects (nano-film, biochip, DNA strand, nanoparticle carbon nanotube ...). SEEC microscopy features a real capacity that responds to the current needs of the nanotechnology market.

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AUTHORS

  • Nicolas MEDARD: Thin Film Development Manager, Nanolane - In charge of developing new SEEC optical media

  • Marie-Pierre VALIGNAT: Senior lecturer at Aix-Marseille 2 University, - Adhesion & Inflammation Laboratory, INSERM U600, CNRS UMR 6212 - Co-inventor of SEEC microscopy

 INTRODUCTION

Summary:

In recent decades, numerous signal amplification techniques have been developed to push back the limits of detection. The vast majority of these involve the use of substrates with very specific properties. Indeed, supports made of thin films or micro- or nanostructured layers are now used in fields such as label-free biological analysis, RAMAN spectroscopy and SNOM microscopy... Contrast-amplifying supports have also been developed for optical microscopy, but their performance has so far been very limited. Indeed, optical microscopy poses particular constraints due to the geometry of the incident illumination beam. A recent study on the modeling of the light path in polarized light has led to the development of supports that meet contrast amplification requirements. Thanks to their characteristics, these supports can be used with a standard optical microscope to visualize layers and objects of nanometric thickness (nanofilm, biofilm, biochip, DNA strand, nanoparticle, carbon nanotube, graphene sheet, etc.).

Abstract:

These last decades, numerous signal enhancement techniques to push away the detection limits were born. Most of them implement the use of supports with specific properties. Indeed, supports made of thin layers, or micro- or nano-structured layers are present in topics such as unlabelling biological analysis, RAMAN spectroscopy, SNOM microscopy... Contrast enhanced supports were also developed for the optical microscopy but their performances remained so far very limited. Indeed, the optical microscopy has particular constraints due to the geometry of the incidental lightbeam. Recently, a study concerning the modelling of the polarized light beam allowed the elaboration of supports having contrast-enhancement properties. Due to their characteristics, these supports enable to visualize with a standard optical microscope, layers and objects having nanometric thicknesses (nanofilm, biofilm, biochip, ADN strength, nanoparticle, carbon nanotube, graphene sheet...).

Key words :

SEEC, Optical microscopy, nanotechnology, contrast-enhancing surfaces, nanofilms, nano-objects.

Keywords :

SEEC, optical microscopy, nanotechnology, contrast-enhanced surface, nano-films, nano-objects.

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SEEC microscopy: optical microscopy as a tool for nanometric characterization