Perspectives for spatially resolved molecular spectroscopy--Raman on the nanometer scale.

Nano-objects and cellular components are of great interest in biological sciences. Tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS) is a tool that allows addressing of such features for structural investigations without the need of further labelling. After brief introduction to the basic aspects of the technique an overview of present application of TERS is given. For this contribution we picked TERS experiments with emphasis on its application in life sciences. Based on these experiments, the future perspective of this analytical method and its limitations is discussed.