2023/06/28 by Robert G. West, West, Robert G., Kostas Kanellopulos +3
Chemistry · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Chemical Sensor Technologies #Applied Physics (physics.app-ph) #Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det) #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Optics (physics.optics) #thermodynamics and calorimetric analyses
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2306.16057
openalex publication_date 2023/06/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In nanomechanical photothermal absorption spectroscopy and microscopy, the measured substance becomes a part of the detection system itself, inducing a nanomechanical resonance frequency shift upon thermal relaxation. Suspended, nanometer-thin ceramic or 2D material resonators are innately highly-sensitive thermal detectors of localized heat exchanges from substances on their surface or integrated into the resonator itself. Consequently, the combined nanoresonator-analyte system is a self-measuring spectrometer and microscope: responding to a substances transfer of heat over the entire spectrum for which it absorbs, according to the intensity it experiences. Limited by their own thermostatistical fluctuation phenomena, nanoresonators have demonstrated sufficient sensitivity for measuring trace analyte as well as single particles and molecules with incoherent light or focused and unfocused coherent light. They are versatile in their design, support various sampling methods and hyphenation with other spectroscopic methods, and are capable in a wide range of applications including fingerprinting, separation science, and surface sciences.