Synchrotron radiation-based infrared microspectroscopy (SR-IMS) beamline provides considerable brightness advantages over conventional IR sources. The combination of IMS with high brightness synchrotron radiation has greatly improved the lateral resolution of the technique by allowing high-quality FTIR spectra to be collected from samples and focused beam size is approaching the diffraction limit for the wavelength of mid-infrared radiation.
End-station of SR-IMS TLS14A1 has been open for public operation since September 2005. NSRRC SR-IMS is a technology of combination of the state-of-the-art FT-IR spectroscopy, optical microscope with all-reflected optics, and Infrared synchrotron radiation is generated and extracted from bending magnet edges in an electron storage ring of 1.5 GeV. IMS has the capability for identification and quantification of materials on a microscopic scale. As the shapes and forms of natural objects provided the foundation for biological science, FTIR spectroscopy has anchored our understanding of bio-molecular structure, such as protein secondary structures, spectral profile of nucleic acid and alteration in glycosylation of glycoconjugates. FTIR microscopic inspection reveals not only the fine details of tissue morphology but chemical components as well. With inventive skill and imagination, biological found ways to selectively stain tissue, visually defining chemical classes by specific colors. A stained tissue section is a vivid and detailed image of chemical distribution. Currently, IMS allows biologists to explore the complex chemistry of biological tissue directly and relate molecular chemistry with morphology. These analyses may probe composition at a single point or generation an extended map for interest of the sample area. Spectral or chemical images can be constructed from an array of points based on characteristic absorption of functional group using peak height, peak area, peak height ratio and peak area ratio for two peaks.
TLS 14A1 is the only infrared beamline in operation at NSRRC, some general information is listed here, and for more detailed information please visit the website of the Infrared Microspectroscopy Facility at NSRRC.content