SCATTERING SPECTROSCOPY OF MOLECULES AT NANOMETER RESOLUTION

A new form of optical spectroscopy is demonstrated whereby the local s cattering from the interaction between a nanometer size probe tip and a sample is measured as a function of wavelength. We show images of vi ruses and molecules at molecular spatial resolution and demonstrate ho w the image contrast varies with wavelength. To first approximation, t he contrast as a function of wavelength varies in the same way as the local polarizability of the sample. (C) 1996 American Institute of Phy sics.