LAUSR.org creates dashboard-style pages of related content for over 1.5 million academic articles. Sign Up to like articles & get recommendations!

Broad modulus range nanomechanical mapping by magnetic-drive soft probes

Photo from wikipedia

Stiffness matching between the probe and deformed portion of the sample in piezo-drive peak force modulation atomic force microscopy (AFM) limits the modulus measurement range of single probes. Here we… Click to show full abstract

Stiffness matching between the probe and deformed portion of the sample in piezo-drive peak force modulation atomic force microscopy (AFM) limits the modulus measurement range of single probes. Here we develop a magnetic drive peak force modulation AFM to broaden the dynamic range of the probe with direct cantilever excitation. This approach not only successfully drives the softest commercial probe (6 pN nm−1) for mapping extremely soft samples in liquid but also provides an indentation force of hundreds of nanonewtons for stiff samples with a soft probe. Features of direct measurements of the indentation force and depth can unify the elastic modulus range up to four orders of magnitude, from 1 kPa to 10 MPa (in liquid) and 1 MPa to 20 GPa (in air or liquid) using a single probe. This approach can be particularly useful for analysing heterogeneous samples with large elastic modulus variations in multi-environments.Force-distance curve-based atomic force microscopy can measure material nanomechanics, but only if the probe and material stiffness match, which limits the measurement range. Here, the authors broaden the dynamic range of the probe by up to four orders of magnitude using magnetic drive peak force modulation.

Keywords: range; microscopy; probe; magnetic drive; force

Journal Title: Nature Communications
Year Published: 2017

Link to full text (if available)


Share on Social Media:                               Sign Up to like & get
recommendations!

Related content

More Information              News              Social Media              Video              Recommended



                Click one of the above tabs to view related content.