Veeco Instruments has introduced two patent-pending atomic force microscope (AFM) scan modes, ScanAsyst and PeakForce QNM. Together, these proprietary advances provide new capabilities for AFM quantitative analysis and ease of use on Veeco’s Dimension Icon, BioScope Catalyst, and the newly announced MultiMode 8 Scanning Probe Microscopes.
The company claims that ScanAsyst is a AFM image-optimisation scan mode, providing new levels of ease-of-use in acquiring reliable, high-quality nanoscale data. Using algorithms it continuously monitor image quality and make appropriate parameter adjustments, this patent-pending scan mode delivers faster, more consistent results, automatically, and regardless of operator skill level.
In addition, ScanAsyst improves image setup with automatic optimisation of parameters and ideally suits a broad range of material and life science applications, with operation in both air and fluid.
The company said that PeakForce QNM is Veeco-developed operating mode that uses patent-pending PeakForce Tapping technology to record fast force response curves at every single pixel in the image. This imaging mode enables unprecedented quantitative nanomechanical property mapping of both modulus and adhesion on a wide variety of materials, while simultaneously imaging sample topography at high resolution.
David Rossi, vice president and general manager of AFM Business at Veeco, said: “Our new ScanAsyst and PeakForce QNM Quantitative NanoMechanical Property Mapping modes make nanoscale AFM imaging and analysis faster, easier, and more quantitative.
“Making AFMs easier and quantitative opens new inroads to important research in materials, energy, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, and other arenas where nanoscale interactions and processes are key to breakthrough discoveries, but where researchers were limited by the capabilities of yesterday’s AFM technology.”
