Ricerc@Sapienza

We present mid-infrared vibrational spectroscopy and imaging at the nanoscale of individual cell membranes deposited on ultraflat gold substrate by use of resonantly-enhanced mechanical photoexpansion technique. This platform allows one to measure the energy absorbed by the sample by monitoring its local thermal expansion with a nanometer atomic force microscope tip. The observed Amide-I and Amide-II bands of proteins in the spectrum acquired on individual purple membrane flakes, filled with bacteriorhodopsin (bR) molecules, are in good agreement with the far-field infrared spectrum collected on large numbers of membranes. Differences among the relative intensity of the two Amide bands in the near- and far-field spectra are attributed to different orientation of bR protein molecules in the two samples. Strong vibrational contrast imaging at the Amide-I of proteins with a lateral resolution of around 50 nm is reported for individual flakes of both purple membranes and artificial lipid vesicles loaded with channelrhodospin molecules.