Asylum Research, a premier manufacturer of atomic force microscopes (AFMs), has announced its collaboration with Professor Ricardo Garcia’s lab in the Institute of Microelectronics of Madrid to further develop new techniques in the field of AFM cantilever dynamics, focusing on higher harmonic and multiple frequency measurement modes. The collaboration involves Asylum Research licensing intellectual property from the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) and the joint development of advanced imaging techniques that allow new surface characterization of a variety of materials.
“Research coming out of the Garcia lab on cantilever dynamics is unsurpassed,” said Dr. Roger Proksch, President and co-founder of Asylum Research. “His recent work dovetails perfectly into developments we have been pursuing with Dual AC Mode™ where we have seen extremely interesting results by employing higher cantilever resonant modes. Combining our efforts will lead to rapid advances in AFM surface characterization using this powerful new imaging mode.”
Professor Ricardo Garcia, head of the Nanolithography and Scanning Probe lab of the Institute of Microelectronics of Madrid commented, “We strongly believe that multiple frequency imaging techniques will provide the next wave of AFM material characterization. It makes great sense for us to formally unite our efforts with Asylum Research because our conceptual developments can be readily implemented into their innovative MFP-3D™ AFM. We are confident that our joint efforts will benefit all AFM researchers and lead to the most rapid discoveries and dissemination of the technique.”
ultiple frequency imaging techniques have been pioneered in the Garcia lab and with the Asylum Research MFP-3D AFM using patent-pending Dual AC Mode. In Dual AC, the cantilever is driven at two or more frequencies. The cantilever motion is then analyzed by the advanced MFP-3D digital controller. The amplitude, phase and other mechanical parameters can be displayed, saved, combined with other signals, and used in user-selected feedback loops. In comparison to ordinary AC mode data, Dual AC data shows increased contrast over a much wider range of imaging parameters and provides information on the frequency dependent mechanical properties of a surface.
Alpha testing of Dual AC software has been very productive with publications submitted to prominent journals by various researchers. The beta release will occur on June 15th with an expected release version due later in the summer.