Patent ID: 7656524

Claim:
A method for conducting Raman spectroscopy, the method comprising the steps of: (a) using an illumination/collection optics objective to illuminate one or more samples with light, wherein the illumination/collection optics objective is oriented at an angle of about 10° to about 90° relative to the longitudinal axis of a tip; (b) using an illumination polarization means to polarize at least a portion of the light of step (a) thereby generating a polarization orientation in at least a portion of the light of step (a), wherein the polarization orientation is from about 50° to about 80° relative to the longitudinal axis of the tip; (c) using a scattered polarization analyzer to selectively transmit at least a portion of the polarized light from step (b), wherein the polarization of the light transmitted by the scattered polarization analyzer is oriented at an angle of about 0° to about 90° relative to the longitudinal axis of the tip so as to maximize the tip-enhanced Raman contrast and wherein the orientation angle of the scattered polarization analyzer is selected based on the nature of the one or more samples being analyzed; and (d) collecting spectral data generated in steps (a) through (c) via a suitable collection means for analysis.