  The purpose was two-fold: To explore the capability of the Diamond
Synchrotron infra-red so as to include near-field photothermal
microspectroscopy (PTMS); and Toward a quantitative nanohistology -
investigation of scleroderma using synchrotron radiation (mu- FTIR). With
recent advances in AFM, the integration of an IR temperature-based system on an
IR beamline is still a promising and unique approach. These preliminary tests
of the PTMS stand-alone system with the Diamond Multimode InfraRed Imaging and
Microspectroscopy beamline (MIRIAM) were successful in one beamtime. To our
knowledge, this is still among very few studies worldwide that managed to
interface an AFM-resistive probe to measure an infrared spectrum using
synchrotron radiation (SR) as a source. When the alignment was successful, we
managed to obtain good spectra on samples that were strong infrared absorbers.
However, the alignment could not be guaranteed all the time, and the
signal-to-noise ratio became too low to record any meaningful spectra on
samples deemed of scientific interest for this proposal. We clarified the
possible improvements to PTMS instrumentation and data acquisition needed to
ensure that we can collect sufficient thermal signals from very thin samples.
