A method to overcome the diffraction limit in infrared microscopy using standing waves in an attenuated total reflection configuration

Abstract A method is proposed to overcome the diffraction limit of spatial resolution in infrared microscopy. To achieve this, standing waves in an attenuated total reflection configuration were generated to spatially modulate the absorbance of adsorbate vibrational transitions. A numerical simulation was undertaken. It showed that chemical imaging with a spatial resolution of approximately 100 nm is achievable in the case of self-assembled patterns (ofoctdecyltrichlorosilane [CH3-(CH 2 ) 17 -SiCl 3 ]), when probing the methyl modes located near 3.5 micrometres.