Latest Atomic force microscope Stories
A simple new improvement to an essential microscope component could greatly improve imaging for researchers who study the very small, from cells to computer chips. Joseph Lyding, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois, led a group that developed a new microscope probe-sharpening technique. The technique is described in research published this week in the journal Nature Communications. Scanning probe microscopes provide images of tiny structures...
Gold is not necessarily precious—at least not as a coating on atomic force microscope (AFM) probes. JILA researchers found that removing an AFM probe's gold coating—until now considered helpful—greatly improved force measurements performed in a liquid, the medium favored for biophysical studies such as stretching DNA or unfolding proteins. As described in Nano Letters,* stripping the gold from the diving-board-shaped probe, or cantilever, with a brief chemical bath improved the...
Experienced anglers know that choppy waters make for difficult fishing, so they try not to rock the boat. Thanks to a new microscopy technique, cell biology researchers can heed that same advice. University of Illinois researchers developed a method they call “trolling AFM,” which allows them to study soft biological samples in liquid with high resolution and high quality. Led by mechanical science and engineering professor Min-Feng Yu, the group published its findings in the journal...
Graphene, a stable two-dimensional structure, has attracted tremendous worldwide attention in recent years because of its unique electronic, physical and mechanical properties as well as its wide range of applications. It has been proven experimentally that the electrical properties of graphene are strongly related to its size, geometry, and edge structure. Therefore, controlling graphene to desired edge structures and shapes is required for its practical application. To date, researchers...
[ Watch the Video ] A collaboration of three groups is responsible for creating and imaging the smallest structure ever -- a billionth of a meter across and nearly 100,000 times thinner than a human hair. The structure, called olympicene, because of its five-ringed shape being similar to that of the Olympic symbol, was first synthesized by University of Warwick, UK researchers, who worked closely with IBM Research - Zurich to bring the molecule to life, employing a combination of...
ZURICH, Feb. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) scientists were able to measure for the first time how charge is distributed within a single molecule. This breakthrough will enable fundamental scientific insights into single-molecule switching and bond formation between atoms and molecules. The ability to image the charge distribution within functional molecular structures holds great promise for future applications such as solar photoconversion, energy storage, or molecular...
ZURICH, Feb. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and IBM Research - Zurich (NYSE: IBM) have fabricated an ultrasharp silicon carbide tip possessing such high strength that it is thousands of times more wear-resistant at the nanoscale than previous designs. The new tip, which is 100,000 times smaller than the tip of a pencil, represents an important step towards nanomanufacturing for applications, including...
Heated nanoprobes perform thermo-mechanical measurements using magnetic actuation Polymer nano-films and nano-composites are used in a wide variety of applications from food packaging to sports equipment to automotive and aerospace applications. Thermal analysis is routinely used to analyze materials for these applications, but the growing trend to use nanostructured materials has made bulk techniques insufficient. In recent years an atomic force microscope-based technique called...
Similar to the way pavement, softened by a hot sun, will slow down a car, graphene—a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon with wondrous properties—slows down an object sliding across its surface. But stack the sheets and graphene gets more slippery, say theorists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), who developed new software to quantify the material's friction. "I don't think anyone expects graphene to behave like a surface of a three-dimensional material, but our...
Nanometer scale temperature Atomic force microscope cantilever tips with integrated heaters are widely used to characterize polymer films in electronics and optical devices, pharmaceuticals, paints, and coatings. These heated tips are also used in research labs to explore new ideas in nanolithography and data storage, and to study fundamentals of nanometer-scale heat flow. Until now, however, no one has used a heated nano-tip for electronic measurements. "We have developed a new kind of...
