Advertisement

If you have an ACS member number, please enter it here so we can link this account to your membership. (optional)

ACS values your privacy. By submitting your information, you are gaining access to C&EN and subscribing to our weekly newsletter. We use the information you provide to make your reading experience better, and we will never sell your data to third party members.

ENJOY UNLIMITED ACCES TO C&EN

Materials

Stable AFM In Air

Setup makes method suitable for probing biological systems and nanomanufacturing

by Carmen Drahl
March 23, 2009 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 87, Issue 12

With the help of laser light, researchers have developed an atomic force microscope that is ultrastable under ambient conditions, and could be useful for a range of new applications in single-molecule biophysics and nanomanufacturing. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) applications are often limited by mechanical drift between the probe tip and the sample, which makes it difficult to monitor a specific feature on a surface over time. Researchers have been able to minimize drift under ultrahigh vacuum or cryogenic conditions, but these environments aren't conducive to biological studies or nanomanufacturing. Now, a team led by Thomas T. Perkins from JILA, a precision physics lab run jointly by NIST and the University of Colorado, Boulder, scattered a laser off the apex of a commercial AFM tip and added a second laser to create a stable, optically based frame of reference (Nano Lett., DOI: 10.1021/nl803298q). The team controlled the tip's position with high precision in air at room temperature over more than one hour, and increased the signal-to-noise ratio of their AFM images fivefold.

Article:

This article has been sent to the following recipient:

0 /1 FREE ARTICLES LEFT THIS MONTH Remaining
Chemistry matters. Join us to get the news you need.