For looking at really small stuff, an optical microscope will only go so far. Looking at things at the nanometer level, though, usually requires some sort of electron microscope, with all the hassle ...

A team of scientists led by the Department of Applied Physics at Osaka University, the Department of Physics and Electronics at Osaka Prefecture University, and the Department of Materials Chemistry ...

Invented 30 years ago, the atomic force microscope has been a major driver of nanotechnology, ranging from atomic-scale imaging to its latest applications in manipulating individual molecules, ...

Andy Extance is a freelance writer based in Exeter, UK. While collecting images of the molecular structure of an antiseptic compound called 8-hydroxyquinoline, nanoscientist Xiaohui Qiu saw something ...

First invented in 1985 by IBM in Zurich, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is a scanning probe technique for imaging. It involves a nanoscopic tip attached to a microscopic, flexible cantilever, which is ...

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is a type of high-resolution scanning probe microscopy that allows for imaging, manipulation, and force measurement. Atomic Force Microscopy was first developed in 1986 ...

To the surprise of chemists, a new technique for taking snapshots of molecules with atomic precision is turning up chemicals they shouldn't be able to see. Chemical reactions take place so rapidly - ...

This article serves as a basic introduction to the design and operation of an atomic force microscope. The following sections cover the basic concepts and technologies that help understand the ...

Christoph Gerber, who co-invented the atomic force microscope, tells Matthew Chalmers how the AFM came about 30 years ago and why it continues to shape research at the nanoscale Nano-vision Christoph ...

An AFM is an instrument used for mapping the atomic-scale topography of a surface by utilizing the repulsive electronic forces between the surface and the tip of a microscope probe as it moves above ...

Unlike almost every other kind of microscope, atomic-force microscopes (AFMs) don’t use any kind of optical beam to image their subjects. Instead, they physically detect the subject’s surface with a ...