ABSTRACT

Raman and ®uorescence spectroscopies are among the most widely used techniques for the characterization of nanostructures. At †rst glance, this may seem an unlikely situation, given that the spatial resolution of both techniques is diffraction limited, and can be no better than 0.25 μm for their confocal probe versions. Raman spectroscopy is favoured for carbon-based structures, where it couples with characteristic intramolecular vibrational modes or with lattice vibrational modes for those structures with crystalline order. Fluorescence spectroscopy plays an important role for quantum-well structures where it couples with the atom-like electron states. Both techniques require minimal sample preparation, and deliver unequivocal †nger-print spectra from which qualitative and semi-quantitative information can be inferred.