The Cypher AFM launched recently by Asylum Research is delivering nano-scale point defects resolution in a liquid. During scanning, tunneling microscopes have revealed point defect resolution.
Asylum’s uccessive AC mode topography images of the cleavage plane of a calcite crystal in water.
Recent enhancements in instrumentations have enabled ultra-high vacuum (UHV) AFM to exhibit true atomic resolution. Research programs are enabled by deriving nano resolution in ambient environments at the liquid-solid boundary. This nano-scale imaging has been obtained due to the device’s signal-to-noise and ultra-small probe support.
According to Asylum Research chief executive officer, Jason Cleveland, his company used the AC-mode (or tapping, intermittent-contact, or dynamic AFM), to enhance the resolution.
The device features enhanced signal-to-noise ratio obtained by using nano-cantilevers with megahertz resonant frequencies in liquid. The optical lever identification noise floor has been raised to 25 fm/rtHz in order to allow measurements to remain thermally limited even while using stiff cantilevers and low amplitudes of one Angstrom. These enhancements allow gentle imaging of even nano-sized contact areas. The low open-loop noise of five pm in X, Y, and Z enables image capture at the nano scale on a scanner with a 30µm lateral range.