Contact mode image of the muscovite mica {001} cleavage plane in water. A small silicon nitride cantilever with a length of 20 µm, a width of 7.5 µm, a resonant frequency of 641 kHz in air and 322 kHz in water, and a spring constant of 0.7 N/m was used. The image was taken with a scan size of 2.8 nm × 2.8 nm and a line rate of 63 Hz. The contrast in the height image is enhanced by atomic stick-slip friction. The hexagonal lattice structure of the cleavage plane can be clearly identified (a ? 5.2 Å, b ? 9.0 Å). The arrangement of the SiO4 and AlO4- tetrahedrons is indicated by small white triangles. Image by C. Braunsmann and T. E. Schäffer, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. Nanotechnology 21, 225705 (2010) |
NanoWorld
AG, Neuchatel, Switzerland, recently launched a website entirely
dedicated to high speed scanning atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM).
NanoWorld has dedicated the space to the community of high speed
scanning AFM users and focuses on the probe aspect of high speed
scanning.
The
typical spatial and temporal resolutions of high speed AFM are in the
order of nanometers and milliseconds. Improved imaging speed in scanning
probe microscopy allows structural and functional characterization of
biological processes at the single-molecule level. It can help to
visualize the dynamics of nanostructures, changes in molecules and the
process of reactions.
This
can contribute to important advances in biotechnology, medicine and
nanotechnology research. HS-AFM enables, for example, the observation of
the functioning of enzymes. It may even be a technique leading to a
better understanding of the molecular processes that cause
neurodegenerative diseases.
For
a long time, according to NanoWorld fast scanning in scanning probe
microscopy was limited by two factors: no commercial high speed scanning
probe microscopes (SPM) and atomic force microscopes (AFM) were
available and there were hardly any dedicated high speed scanning probes
available. On the instrumentation side the first systems have recently
been commercialized.
To
achieve the best results with these high speed scanning microscopes
specially designed high speed scanning probes need to be used that
differ from standard AFM probes.
The
NanoWorld R&D team is developing AFM probes for fast scanning since
many years. The first commercially available high speed scanning probe,
the Arrow UHF, was introduced in 2004.
Meanwhile
a second generation of probes dedicated to High Speed AFM has been
developed in collaboration with nanotools GmbH. The prototypes of these
developments are currently undergoing an extensive beta testing phase
and are expected to be officially introduced soon.
