Spectroscopy and imaging at the nanoscale

尽管在过去的十年中，纳米材料的应用有了迅速的发展，如生物传感器、柔性太阳能电池、药物输送载体或计算机中的比特元件，但纳米科学的潜力尚未得到充分发挥。在这种情况下，利用光谱学结合先进的显微镜技术对这些纳米物体或功能化表面进行表征，提供了远远超出纯成像技术所能提供的信息，因为它允许这些材料的分子特性与其分子结构、大小和组成相关联。在远低于1微米的空间分辨率下研究纳米材料的可能性对于更好地理解它们的光学-机械-电学性质，以及它们对外部刺激或扰动的相互作用和响应具有重要意义。同样，探索生物系统中的生物过程和化学交换也很重要。更好的空间分辨率或时间分辨率的生化交换将导致对生物过程的基本原理更精确的理解。我们的计划侧重于研究材料和生物材料组织在纳米和微观尺度使用扫描探针显微镜的组合，以及各种光学显微镜技术（拉曼，荧光和和频率生成）。这种互补方法的集合将用于(i)确定半导体纳米线和石墨烯层中的约束效应，（ii）与等离子体平台一起开发用于检测低浓度分子系统的超灵敏振动测量，（iii）评估在修饰表面上组织的细胞之间的化学交换，以及（iv）动态测量在各种刺激下分子受体构象的变化。

Although the past decade has seen rapid developments in the application of nanosized materials such as biological sensors, flexible solar cells, drug delivery carriers, or bit elements in computers, the potential of nanoscience has yet to be fulfilled. In this context, the characterization of these nano-objects or functionalized surfaces using optical spectroscopy combined with advanced microscopy techniques offers information far beyond that provided by pure imaging techniques, as it allows the molecular properties of these materials to be correlated with their molecular structures, sizes and compositions. The possibility to investigate nanomaterials at spatial resolutions well below 1 micron is of great significance for a better understanding of their optical-mechanical-electrical properties, and their interactions and responses to external stimuli or perturbations. Similarly, it is important to probe biological processes and chemical exchanges in biological systems. A better spatial resolution or time resolution of the biochemical exchanges would lead to a more precise understanding of the fundamentals of biological processes. Our program focuses on the study of materials and biomaterials organized at the nano- and microscale using a combination of scanning probe microscopy, together with a variety of optical microscopy techniques (Raman, Fluorescence and Sum Frequency generation). Such an ensemble of complementary methods will be used to (i) determine the confinement effects in semi-conductor nanowires and graphene layers, (ii) develop ultrasensitive vibrational measurements in conjunction with plasmonic platforms for the detection of low concentration molecular systems, (iii) evaluate chemical exchanges between cells organized on modified surfaces, and (iv) dynamically measure the change in conformation of molecular receptors under various stimuli.