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Sponsored Content

This article has been sponsored by Asylum Research

The technology leader in scanning probe and atomic force micrscopy

Parallel scanning probe arrays: their applications

21 January 2009
Chang Liu

Since the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) and the atomic force microscope (AFM), the field of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) instruments has grown steadily and has had a profound influence in materials research, chemistry, biology, nanotechnology, and electronics. Today, scanning probe instruments are used for metrology, characterization, detection, manipulation, patterning and, and material modification. A wide range of scanning probe applications are available, taking advantage of various modes of tip–substrate interactions, including force, optics and, electrochemistry, electromagnetics, electrostatics, thermal and mass transfer and vibration.

The scanning probe instrument family includes various surface characterization tools that measure surface force interactions; these ‘force microscopy’ tools include AFMs, magnetic force microscopes, electrostatic force microscopes, lateral force microscopy, and so on. The AFM has been used to characterize surfaces of inorganic materials, organic materials, and biological entities.

Scanning probes can also be used to produce high-resolution spatial mapping of topography, hardness, temperature, emitted or reflected light, charge distribution, and vibration magnitude. SPM probes have also been widely used in surface modification, in either additive mode, subtractive mode, electrochemical reaction mode, or thermal phase change mode. Since scanning probes are essentially nanoeffectors connected to high-precision mechanical movement controllers, they have been used as manipulators.

 

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