Full featured atomic force microscope with powerful analytical capabilities

Mechanical properties of your sample can be collected using a contact resonance method to map stiffness variations simultaneously with the topography. A 4µm x 8µm topography image and stiffness map of a three-component polymer blend. The stiffness map, which measures the variation in modulus by analyzing the contact resonance of the cantilever, clearly resolves the three materials.

Figure 4. Height (top) and Lorentz Contact Resonance composite image (bottom) of wood cell walls. The bottom image is a three color overlay obtained at three different contact resonance frequencies selected to highlight the different wood cell components.

An AFM image with nano-TA data of a toner particle. The particle was embedded in epoxy and microtomed. The topography of the sample shows variations in structure, which can then be analyzed using nano-TA. Toner particles include a number of components (wax, resin, dye, etc.) that exhibit different transition temperatures.

The 4µm x 8µm image shown here utilizes the scanning thermal microscopy (SThM) functionality of the afm+ system on a carbon fiber – epoxy composite sample. The sample was cut and polished to form a smooth surface. The height image (left) shows a number of carbon fibers, while the SThM image (right) shows the change in probe temperature on the two materials due to their differences in thermal conductivity. This sample demonstrates the high lateral-resolution capability of the SThM technique.

An optical image and a TTM map of a banded spherulite composed of poly (L-lactic acid) (PLLA). This TTM map was created by using the motorized XY stage. The blue areas in the TTM map are amorphous PLLA; the red and yellow areas are crystalline areas. The “onion-like” structure in the spherulite was created by stepping the temperature back and forth during the crystallization process to create regions with a higher or lower degree of crystallinity. Sample courtesy of J. Morikawa, Tokyo Institute of Technology.

The new afm+ is fully upgradeable to our nanoIR system, a probe-based measurement tool that utilizes infrared spectroscopy to reveal chemical composition at the nanoscale. The nanoIR also provides high-resolution characterization of local topographic, mechanical, and thermal properties. Potential application areas span the realms of polymer science, materials science, and life science, including detailed studies of structure-property correlations.

Topography and IR images collected at 1650 cm^-1 and 1740 cm^-1 of Streptomyces bacteria. These bacteria form lipid-filled vesicles in later stages of growth. The location of these vesicles can be determined by imaging at 1740 cm^-1, an absorption band specific to the lipid. The vesicles can be resolved to sub-100nm resolution using the nanoIR.

An example of the multi-property measurement capability of the nanoIR system. The sample is a multilayer film composed of polyethylene and polypropylene. The two materials can be clearly identified by their unique absorption bands. In addition, the difference in stiffness and transition temperature of the two materials can be measured.