Recent advancements in optical microscopy have enabled researchers to visualize single particles with unprecedented resolution. Now, researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have developed a method to not only visualize particles, but to also measure their vibrational spectra with single-particle photoacoustic vibrational spectroscopy (SPPVS). This new technique leverages the precision of optical microscopy to enable the study of vibrational spectra on the single particle level.

SPPVS combines the principles of photoacoustic spectroscopy and optical microscopy to measure the vibrational spectra of a single particle. By using short laser pulses, the optical energy is converted to acoustic energy, which can then be measured to reveal the particle’s vibrational spectrum. By using this method, researchers can now study vibrational spectra on the single particle level with a resolution of 10 nanometers. The potential applications of this technique are broad, ranging from characterizing the vibrational properties of nanoparticles to studying the vibrational properties of biological molecules.

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source: Phys.org