A new concept using a near-field thermometry sensor is presented, employing atipless microcantilever experimentally validated for an aqueous medium within approximatelyone cantilever width from the solid interface. By correlating the thermal Brownian vibratingmotion of the microcantilever with the surrounding liquid temperature, the near-fieldmicroscale temperature distributions at the probing ...

When a microcantilever with a nanoscale tip is scanned laterally over a surface to measure the nanoscale frictional forces, the onset of stick-slip tip motions is an extremely important phenomenon that signals the onset of lateral friction forces. In this article, we investigate theoretically the influence of tip and microcantilever compliance on this phenomenon. We show that static considerati...

We describe a simple approach to detect small mechanical displacements by scattering evanescent optical waves confined around an optical waveguide. Our experimental setup consists of a microcantilever brought into the proximity of a tapered optical fiber. The scattering of evanescent waves and hence the optical transmission through the tapered fiber is strongly dependent on the separation betwe...

In this paper, a hybrid device based on a microcantilever interfaced with bacteriorhodopsin (bR) is constructed. The microcantilever, on which the highly oriented bR film is self-assembled, undergoes controllable and reversible bending when the light-driven proton pump protein, bR, on the microcantilever surface is activated by visible light. Several control experiments are carried out to precl...

Microcantilever motion detection is a useful tool for the characterization of the physical, chemical and biological properties of materials. In the past, different approaches have been proposed and tested to enhance the behavior, size and simplicity of microcantilever motion detectors. In this paper, a new approach to measure microcantilever motion with nanometric resolution is presented. The p...

There is evidence to support the claim that speedbreakers can cause accidents and injury. When a vehicle approaches a speed-breaker at a speed greater than some threshold velocity, the risk of accident or injury is substantial. Speed-breakers are inconspicuous in low visibility conditions, like at night, or when there is fog, rain or snow. This problem is particularly acute in developing countr...

School of Graduate Studies The University of Alabama in Huntsville Degree Doctor of Philosophy Program Materials Science Program Name of Candidate Ashwini Kadam Title Study of Thermally Induced Higher Order Microcantilever Modes Microcantilevers have been widely studied for sensing tiny quantities of chemical and biological analytes in both vapor and liquid media. They have been shown to respon...

Uncooled microcantilever-based infrared (IR) detectors have recently gained interest due to their low noise equivalent temperature difference (NETD), while concurrently maintaining low costs. These properties have made them available for a wider range of applications. However, the curvature induced by residual strain mismatch severely compromises the device’s performance. Therefore, to meet per...