Nano-optics of two-dimensional materials via synchrotron infrared ultramicroscopy

by Dr. Ingrid Barcelos and Dr. Raul Freitas
from the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory,
LNLS, Campinas, Brazil
https://lnls.cnpem.br/about/

Friday 29th March at 10:30 a.m., at the IEMN LCI Amphiteater.


ABSTRACT

Infrared (IR) spectroscopy is a standard analytical modality ready to approach multidisciplinary scientific questions. Among several advantages of this spectral tool, it is important to highlight its sensitivity to natural vibrational signatures of materials, enabling label free access to chemical composition and coherent vibrations in materials in general.
Despite the power of the technique, the advance of scientific questions at sub-micron scales has challenged IR analysis due to the intrinsic diHraction limit of light. Then, to overcome this limitation, novel techniques exploring near-field optics allowed IR to approach quantum scale phenomena in materials as they operate with few-nanometers lateral resolution and high sensitivity to the local optical properties of materials. That is the case for the scattering Scanning Near-field Optical Microscopy (s-SNOM), a technique that combines atomic force and IR microscopies to achieve nano-resolution for spectral imaging. The reach of the s-SNOM for broadband analysis is then extended with the use of synchrotron storage rings as they provide excellent spectral irradiance throughout the whole IR spectral range.
In this talk, fundamentals of s-SNOM are presented in a multidisciplinary narrative to inspire the overall condensed matter community. Moreover, this talk brings a panorama of applications of synchrotron- and laser-based s-SNOM used to access nano-optics of a variety of two-dimensional materials. These applications emphasize the protagonist role of synchrotron s-SNOM in the field of nanophotonics and invite the community to explore this open-user facility to approach alike scientific questions.

Biographies:

Dr. Ingrid Barcelos :
Bachelor’s in Physics (2009), master’s in Physics (2011) and doctorate in Physics from Federal University of Minas Gerais (2015). She has experience in Physics, focusing on near field optical microscopy, acting on the following subjects: polaritons in 2D materials, synchrotron infrared nanospectroscopy, optoelectronics and vibrational properties.

Dr. Raul Freitas:
Researcher at the National Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS) since 2012, he works as head of the IMBUIA beamline at the Sirius accelerator. He is mainly involved in the fields of Synchrotron Infrared Nano-spectroscopy, near-field optical interferometry, synchrotron infrared beamline design, and materials analysis by infrared spectroscopy. Before working in the area of infrared and near-field optics, he worked in the area of synchrotron X-rays multiple diffraction, the subject of his doctorate in Physics at the University of São Paulo (USP) and the University of Guelph (UoG-Canada) and later the subject of his Post-Doc at LNLS in a collaborative project with Hewllet Packard (HP-Labs/USA). Still as a Post-Doc, he briefly served as a visiting researcher at the Surface Science Lab at ESRF-France. Before his academic/scientific life, he worked as a Designer in a multinational in the fuel sector.