Far-field and near-field spectroscopic characterization of Nb2CTx MXene

The Nb₂CT_x MXene was synthesized and optically characterized utilizing Photo-induced Force Microscopy (PiFM), a nanoscale imaging technique combining AFM topography mapping and infrared spectroscopy. In both bulk and single/few layered MXene flakes, absorption peaks were observed in the 770 - 1860 cm^-1 investigated range. The local IR spectra is compared with broader Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy to analyse the material composition. Our findings notably highlight the presence of a characteristic peaks related to surface functional group in both far-field and near-field measurement. The spectra also indicate a strong contribution of niobium oxide in the synthetized material.