Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)

Introduction

AFM has been employed in a variety of research fields including physics, chemistry, biology and engineering. In order to measure the force or potential energy between a small tip and a sample, a tiny probe called a cantilever is employed. The cantilever provides a force sensor and a force actuator. By pushing the cantilever to the sample, its topographic height can be measured, and the interacting force between the tip attached to the cantilever and the sample can be measured by pulling it. There are various methods for  detecting the motion of the cantilever with nanometre scale accuracy. These include tunneling current measurement , optical deflection technique , fiber interferometry  and piezoresistive methods.

Innova Scanning Probe Microscope

Many company and college adopted this tool to make nano structure and electric characteristic study. Detailed as below:

The Innova atomic force microscope provides more performance and flexibility at a greater value than any other SPM. The proprietary closed-loop scan delivers noise-levels that approach those of high-end, open-loop systems and offers a wide range of functionality for physical, materials, and life sciences, from sub-micron levels up to 90 microns.

The Integrated AFM-Raman Imaging System (IRIS) Module for Bruker Atomic Force Microscopes enables the seamless blend of AFM and Raman spectroscopy by combining chemical or crystallographic information (Raman spectroscopy) at high

SPM Introduction

Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) is a branch of microscopy that forms images of surfaces using a physical probe that scans the specimen. An image of the surface is obtained by mechanically moving the probe in a raster scan of the specimen, line by line, and recording the probe-surface interaction as a function of position. SPM was founded with the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope in 1981.

Many scanning probe microscopes can image several interactions simultaneously. The manner of using these interactions to obtain an image is generally called a mode.

The resolution varies somewhat from technique to technique, but some probe techniques reach a rather impressive atomic resolution. They owe this largely to the ability