Patent ID: 7151598

Claim:
Apparatus for examining the identity of chemical groups in a sample attached to a surface, comprising a substrate having a mirror surface on which the sample is supported, and which is formed of a plasmon resonant metal, a source of a beam of light, a lens assembly having a tip region and a nanolens composed of one or more plasmon resonance particles disposed on the tip region, and arranged thereon to produce, when the light beam is directed through the nanolens, near-field electromagnetic gap modes in a space between the nanolens and a confronting detection region on the substrate surface, in a gap between the nanolens and substrate that is 40 nm or less, a focusing mechanism for moving the lens assembly toward and away from the substrate surface, with a gap of less than 40 nm, to produce electromagnetic gap modes that enhance the Raman spectroscopy signals produced by the sample in the detection region; a detector for receiving light emitted by or scattered from the sample at the detection region, and for converting the received light into a gap-mode enhanced Raman spectrum, whereby the sample chemical group at the detection region can be identified, and a translation mechanism for translating the lens assembly relative to said substrate, to position the lens assembly over different detection regions of the substrate.