Focused ion beam as tool for atomic force microscope (AFM) probes sculpturing

Fabrication of advanced probes for atomic force microscopy using focused ion beam

Nanodispenser for attoliter volume deposition using atomic force microscopy probes modified by focused-ion-beam milling

In this letter, we describe the on-demand dispensing of single liquid droplets with volumes down to a few attoliters and submicrometric spacing. This dispensing is achieved using a standard atomic force microscope probe, with a 200 nm aperture at the tip apex, opened by focused ion beam milling. The inside of the tip is used as reservoir for the liquid. This maskless dispensing, realized in amb...

Improved atomic force microscope cantilever performance by ion beam modification

The performance of atomic force microscopy cantilevers, as measured by the resonant frequency and spring constant, is directly dependent on the shape of the cantilever. Here we have improved the performance of conventional silicon nitride cantilevers by using focused ion beam milling to minimize the width of the cantilever legs. The resonant frequency in solution for any given spring constant i...

The atomic force microscope as a new microdissecting tool for the generation of genetic probes.

The atomic force microscope (AFM) can be used to visualize and to manipulate biological material with relative case and high resolution. This study was carried out to investigate whether probe sets, specific for subregions of the human genome and useful for the painting of chromosome bands, can be established by PCR amplification of AFM-dissected chromosome regions. Compared to standard microdi...

Atomic Force Microscope as a tool for nanomanipulation

An atomic force microscope (AFM) based system has been built for the manipulation of materials at the nanometer scale. The AFM is combined with an inverse optical microscope and an UV-laser microbeam system for photoablation. The actuators of the AFM are controlled using a digital signal processor. Real-time routines and a graphical user interface have been programmed for high resolution imagin...