Oxford Instruments Asylum Research, Santa Barbara, Calif., has received the 2014 Microscopy Today Innovation Award for the development of blueDrive Photothermal Excitation. It replaces the conventional piezoacoustic excitation mechanism of the AFM cantilever with a blue laser that directly excites the cantilever photothermally. This results in an ideal cantilever drive response in both air and liquids, which provides significant performance and ease of use benefits for tapping mode imaging. BlueDrive is an option available exclusively for Asylum’s Cypher atomic force microscopes. It makes tapping- mode imaging simple, stable, and accurate.
The photo shows a contact resonance stiffness map of patterned titanium on silicon. It is a reference sample consisting of square 200-nm-high titanium features patterned on silicon. It is imaged with Contact Resonance Viscolelastic Mapping mode, using blueDrive photothermal excitation on a Cypher S AFM.
Cypher is available in two configurations, the Cypher S and the Cypher ES Environmental AFM. They provide low-drift closed loop imaging for the most accurate images and measurements possible today, >20X faster imaging with small cantilevers, exceptional ease of use, and integrated thermal, acoustic and vibration control – all in a small footprint. Cypher AFMs routinely achieve higher resolution than other AFMs, as demonstrated by single point atomic defects in crystal lattices and imaging of the DNA double helix.
The Cypher ES adds gas and liquid environmental control, temperature control, and enhanced chemical compatibility to the extraordinary performance of the Cypher S.
