Using p-aminothiophenol (PATP) molecules on a gold substrate and high-vacuum tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (HV-TERS), we show that the vibrational spectra of these molecules are distinctly different from those in typical surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. Detailed first-principles calculations help to assign the Raman peaks in the TERS measurements as Raman-active and IR-active vibrational ...

We report a simple method for the fabrication of Niobium superconducting (SC) tips for scanning tunnelling microscopy which allow atomic resolution. The tips, formed in-situ by the mechanical breaking of a niobium wire, reveal a clear SC gap of 1.5 meV and a critical temperature Tc =9.2±0.3 K, as deduced from Superconductor Insulator Normal metal (NIS) and Superconductor Insulator Superconducto...

A Blade Tip Timing (BTT) system enables the measurement of turbomachinery blade vibrations by means of contactless sensors mounted in the casing. In addition, the so-called Blade Tip Clearance (BTC) measurement system ensures the monitoring of the existing running gaps between the blade tip and the casing. This paper focuses on the results achieved so far using a novel magnetoresistive sensor f...

This paper presents a micro-coordinate measuring machine (micro-CMM) for large-scale dimensional measurement of a micro-slit on a precision die coater by using a shear-mode micro-probe. A glass micro sphere with a nominal diameter of 52.3 μm was attached on one end of a tapered glass capillary tube as a probe tip ball. The micro-slit width of a slot die coater with a nominal slit width of 85 μm...

The electrochemical behavior of electrodes made by sealing carbon nanofibers in glass or with electrophoretic paint has been studied by scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM). Because of their small electroactive surface area, conical geometry with a low aspect ratio and high overpotential for proton and oxygen reduction, carbon nanofiber (CNF) electrodes are promising candidates for produc...

When an external laser illuminates a nanoscale tip, heating effect arises from absorption of light. This thermal phenomenon happens in near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM), 5 apertureless NSOM, tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS), laser-assisted scanning tunneling microscope (STM)/ atomic force microscope (AFM)-assisted surface modification and nanofabrication, 11 and high density d...

The authors have developed an approach to fabricate sharp and high aspect ratio metal tips using nanosecond pulse laser melting. A quartz wafer covered with a thin chromium (Cr) film was placed on top of a second wafer with a sub-micrometer gap between them and the Cr film facing the second wafer. Then an excimer laser pulse (308 nm wavelength, 20 ns pulse duration) was shone from the back of t...

Myloplus zorroi sp. n. is described from the Rio Madeira Basin in Amazonia. The new species had been treated as an undescribed Tometes species because of the absence of a marked abdominal keel and few small spines forming its prepelvic serrae, features commonly found in the species of the Myleus clade of the Serrasalmidae (species of genera Myleus, Mylesinus, Ossubtus and Tometes) and also in s...