Great Tools for New Atomic Force Microscope Users
How do you help new Atomic Force Microscope users to quickly maximize their productivity on the instrument? AFMWorkshop is pleased to provide a series of animations that illuminate key operating principles and efficiently introduce new users to Atomic Force Microscopes.
While minimal training is needed to measure basic images on AFMs, gaining optimal performance requires greater insight into the operating principles and design of atomic force microscopes. This depth of understanding is especially necessary when users need to measure images with a few angstroms of resolution.
Concepts essential to understanding how an AFM operates include: the design of piezoelectric scanners, light lever design, probe sample interactions, and feedback control.
These concepts are now readily understandable through viewing the new Animated AFM Tutorials.Upcoming tutorials will provide insight into vibrating mode scanning, PID feedback control, scanner linearization, and more.
Unique to AFMWorkshop's Animated AFM Tutorials is their starting point in the basic ideas of each topic. For example, in the Design of the Light Lever AFM:
- we first show that a photodetector can covert photons to electrical energy;
- then we demonstrate how 2 photodetectors are used to create a position-sensitive detector;
- and finally we show how the motion of a cantilever is measured with a light lever.
We invite you to check out this new resource. You can also download the tutorials for your use. We'd love to hear your reflections on the efficacy of these tools in your work, please email us with your comments and questions.
