Nanomaterials are considered as materials which have at least one of the three dimensions reduced down to nanometer scale.

Following this definition, there are 2D materials, which are essentially single layers, like including graphene, or other similar materials like transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) monolayers: MoS2, MoSe2, WS2, and WSe2. Another example can be all atomically thin layers, having often an importance in electronic, material or biological applications. Quasi-2D structures are also possible, for example heterostructures, comprising a stack of very thin layers and exhibiting for this reason new physical properties.
Carbon nanotubes, nanowires, and nanorods are examples of 1D materials and quantum dots or nanoparticles are 0D materials.

Classical Raman micro-spectroscopy offers a diffraction limited spatial resolution in the order of a few hundreds of nanometers.  Despite the difference between this resolution and the actual dimensions of the nanomaterials, Raman remains an excellent tool to answer many questions about their structure and properties.  Furthermore, advances in methods such as Tip Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (TERS) have also brought significant in achievable spatial resolution for Raman, down to 20 nm and below, more closely matching the actual dimensions of the nanomaterials.

A step further is a combination of Raman spectroscopy with Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) techniques. Such combination allows the user to take advantage of these two analysis methods within a single experiment platform. The colocalized Raman-SPM measurements give separate information from Raman spectroscopy (chemical characterization and imaging) and SPM (physical properties), acquired from the same region of the sample. In contrast to this, Tip Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (TERS) measurements provide the chemical information (like Raman) with nanometer spatial resolution (like SPM). Find more information on this subject on our pages related to NanoRaman.

• Identification of materials constituting nanostructures
• Number of layers for graphene and TMDC layers
• Thickness of heterostructure layers
• Diameter and chirality of carbon nanotubes
• Stress/strain characterization
• Electronic properties of materials (metallic/semiconductive, doping)
• Localization of separated carbon nanotubes or quantum dots

• Resonant Raman spectroscopy of twisted multilayer graphene, J.B. Wu et al., Nat Commun. 5 (2014) 5309.
• Lateral epitaxial growth of two-dimensional layered semiconductor heterojunctions, X. Duan et al., Nature Nanotechnology (2014) published online.
• Anharmonic phonons in few-layer MoS ₂: Raman spectroscopy of ultralow energy compression and shear modes, M. Boukhicha et al., Phys. Rev. B 87 (2013) 195316.
• Interlayer Breathing and Shear Modes in Few-Trilayer MoS2 and WSe2, Y. Zhao et al., Nano Lett. 13 (2013) 1007.
• Photoluminescence emission and Raman response of monolayer MoS₂, MoSe₂, and WSe₂, P. Tonndorf et al., Optics Express, 21 (2013) 4908.
• Hydrostatic strain enhancement in laterally confined SiGe nanostripes, G.M. Vanacore et al., Phys.Rev.B 88 (2013) 115309.
• The thermal stability of graphene in air investigated by Raman spectroscopy, H.Y. Nan et al., J.Raman Spec. 44 (2013) 1018.
• The shear mode of multilayer graphene, P.H Tan et al., Nat. Mat. 11 (2012) 294.
• Molecular Arrangement in Self-Assembled Azobenzene-Containing Thiol Monolayers at the Individual Domain Level Studied through Polarized Near-Field Raman Spectroscopy, M. Chaigneau et al., Int J Mol Sci. 12 (2011) 1245.
• Characterization of single transition metal oxide nanorods by combining atomic force microscopy and polarized micro-Raman spectroscopy, S. Najjar et al., Chem. Phys. Lett. 514 (2011) 128.
• Polarized Raman scattering in monolayer, bilayer, and suspended bilayer graphene, S. Sahoo et al., J. Appl. Phys. 110 (2011) 044320.
• Growth of Linear Carbon Chains inside Thin Double-Wall Carbon Nanotubes, C. Zhao et al., J. Phys. Chem. C 115 (2011) 13166.
• Optical and Electrical Properties of Inner Tubes in Outer Wall-Selectively Functionalized Double-Wall Carbon Nanotubes, Y. Piao et al., Phys. Chem. Lett. 2 (2011) 1577.
• Different longitudinal optical—transverse optical mode amplification in tip enhanced Raman spectroscopy of GaAs(001), P.G. Gucciardi & J.-C. Valmalette2, Appl. Phys. Lett. 97 (2010) 263104.