Atomic force microscopes - 23 News

How to Gently Caress Atoms: A single oxygen atom is used as a highly sensitive sensor

How can surfaces be studied as gently as possible on an atomic scale?

10-Jun-2020 - Oxygen is highly reactive. It accumulates on many surfaces and determines their chemical behavior. At the Vienna University of Technology, scientists study the interaction between oxygen and metal oxide surfaces, which play an important role in many technical applications - from chemical sensors ...

Hydrogen bonds directly detected for the first time

16-May-2017 - For the first time, scientists have succeeded in studying the strength of hydrogen bonds in a single molecule using an atomic force microscope. Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe and is an integral part of almost all organic compounds. Molecules and sections of macromolecules are ...

Nanowires as Sensors in New Type of Atomic Force Microscope

19-Oct-2016 - A new type of atomic force microscope (AFM) uses nanowires as tiny sensors. Unlike standard AFM, the device with a nanowire sensor enables measurements of both the size and direction of forces. Physicists at the University of Basel and at the EPF Lausanne have described these results in the ...

Microscope creates near-real-time videos of nanoscale processes

16-Dec-2015 - State-of-the-art atomic force microscopes (AFMs) are designed to capture images of structures as small as a fraction of a nanometer. In recent years, AFMs have produced desktop-worthy close-ups of atom-sized structures, from single strands of DNA to individual hydrogen bonds between ...

Magnetic actuation enables nanoscale thermal analysis

Heated nanoprobes perform thermo-mechanical measurements using magnetic actuation

16-Jan-2012 - 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 ...

AFM positioning: Shining light on a needle in a haystack

17-Nov-2010 - The researchers characterize their new technique as a neat solution to the "needle in a haystack" problem of nanoscale microscopy, but it's more like the difference between finding the coffee table in a darkened room either by walking around until you fall over it, or using a flashlight. In a new ...

New technique shows unprecedented precision in measuring liquid-solid interaction

New images improve resolution of measurements by a factor of 10,000 or more

27-Apr-2010 - Wettability — the degree to which a liquid either spreads out over a surface or forms into droplets — is crucial to a wide variety of processes. It influences, for example, how easily a car's windshield fogs up, and also affects the functioning of advanced batteries and fuel-cell systems. Until ...

A little less force: Making atomic force microscopy work for cells

26-Apr-2010 - Atomic force microscopy, a tactile-based probe technique, provides a three-dimensional nanoscale image of a material by gliding a needle-like arm across the material's surface. The core of AFM imaging workhorse is a cantilever with a sharp tip that deflects as it encounters undulations across a ...

Thermochemical nanolithography now allows multiple chemicals on a chip

18-Dec-2009 - Scientists at Georgia Tech have developed a nanolithographic technique that can produce high-resolution patterns of at least three different chemicals on a single chip at writing speeds of up to one millimeter per second. The chemical nanopatterns can be tailor-designed with any desired shape and ...

Muscular protein bond -- strongest yet found in nature

Single-molecule experiments show how mechanical strength in muscles is anchored in the titin-telethonin complex

22-Jul-2009 - A research collaboration between Munich-based biophysicists and a structural biologist in Hamburg is helping to explain why our muscles, and those of other animals, don't simply fall apart under stress. Their findings may have implications for fields as diverse as medical research and ...