HOU Jianguo and colleagues have improved low-temperature (liquid helium) ultra-high vacuum tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy to fine-tuned the localized plasmon field at the tip height to a spatial resolution to 1.5 Angstroms of single chemical bonds. In space, a complete spatial imaging pattern of various intrinsic vibration modes of a molecule was obtained. The scientists propose “scanning Raman picoscopy” as a new method for visually constructing molecular structures based by molecular imaging patterns at Angstrom resolution.

CAS news release, February 13, 2020