Adding a sensitive touch to atomic force microscopy

JUN 12, 2009

Physics Today

CNET News : IBM already had technology that could measure extremely subtle forces among atoms, but a nanotechnology development at the company’s Zurich Research Laboratory shows a new level of sensitivity: the ability to distinguish positively charged atoms from those that are neutral or negatively charged.

The atomic force microscope maps what’s below by detecting subtle changes in forces of attraction.Researchers at the Zurich lab, along with colleagues at the University of Regensburg and Utrecht University, used an atomic force microscope (AFM) with a tuning-fork detector arrangement on the tip of its probe to distinguish among gold atoms that were positively charged, neutral, or negatively charged. The researchers describe their approach in the June 12 issue of Science . Related Press Release IBM scientists directly measure charge states of atoms using an atomic force microscope Related article Novel Probes for Molecular Electronics