Scanning Probe Microscopy creates images with the help of a physical probe that scans the specimen surface. As the probe scans the specimen line by line, the position of the probe is recorded to create the image. SPM helps study invisible specimens such as individual atoms and objects of nanometer scale.
Conventional SPM operates at only one frequency at a time. This is a serious limitation because probe-specimen surface interactions are dynamic and only by knowing how the interaction varies at many frequencies can one get a fuller picture.
A breakthrough has now been achieved by Asylum Research and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in this area. Band Excitation (BE) is a new SPM technology that involves exciting and detecting the tip dynamics at many frequencies simultaneously. This has been compared to seeing in color instead of just in black and white.
Band Excitation allows more rapid probing of energy dissipation at nanoscale “enabling scientists to characterize a sample’s electrical, magnetic, and mechanical energy conversion and dissipation properties at standard imaging rates.” Information about energy dissipation is important in diverse fields such as electronics, information technology and energy storage/transport.
The inventors hope that BE will bring in a new family of SPMs.
Asylum Research and ORNL has been awarded the Microscopy Today Innovation Award for the breakthrough. Read the news at Nanowerk.
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