Dynamic calibration of higher eigenmode parameters of a cantilever in atomic force microscopy by using tip–surface interactions

• Stanislav S. Borysov,
• Daniel Forchheimer and
• David B. Haviland

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1899–1904, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.200

• given the known free amplitude of the first mode for the particular drive voltage amplitude where is a transfer function of the piezoelectric shaker. Implementation Summarizing the ideas presented, an experimental implementation of the proposed calibration would consist of the following steps, with

Real-time monitoring of calcium carbonate and cationic peptide deposition on carboxylate-SAM using a microfluidic SAW biosensor

• Anna Pohl and
• Ingrid M. Weiss

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1823–1835, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.193

• the sensor to an electrical signal by the direct piezoelectric effect. The ability to easily calibrate the system with high performance [35] is essential to ensure the observed changes in the acoustic wave are indicative of changes in the system free energy which changes as a function of mass transfer

Controlling the dispersion of supported polyoxometalate heterogeneous catalysts: impact of hybridization and the role of hydrophilicity–hydrophobicity balance and supramolecularity

• Gijo Raj,
• Colas Swalus,
• Eglantine Arendt,
• Pierre Eloy,
• Michel Devillers and
• Eric M. Gaigneaux

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1749–1759, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.185

• piezoelectric scanner. The ratio of the set-point amplitude to the free amplitude was kept at 0.9 in order to apply minimal forces (“light tapping” conditions) so as to prevent sample deformation. Images were acquired at a resolution of 512 samples per line with a scan speed of 0.5 lines/s. Raw images were

Calibration of quartz tuning fork spring constants for non-contact atomic force microscopy: direct mechanical measurements and simulations

• Jens Falter,
• Marvin Stiefermann,
• Gernot Langewisch,
• Philipp Schurig,
• Hendrik Hölscher,
• Harald Fuchs and
• André Schirmeisen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 507–516, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.59

• scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of a bare tuning fork (type DS26, Micro Crystal AG, Switzerland). These tuning forks are microfabricated from piezoelectric quartz, which is electrically contacted by gold electrodes placed onto the quartz substrate. The dimensions of the tuning fork can be easily

Encapsulation of nanoparticles into single-crystal ZnO nanorods and microrods

• Jinzhang Liu,
• Marco Notarianni,
• Llew Rintoul and
• Nunzio Motta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 485–493, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.56

• synthesis methods and applications. ZnO is a multifunctional material with semiconducting, photonic, and piezoelectric properties. Potential applications of ZnO 1D nanostructures include gas sensor [1], transistor [2], light-emitting device [3], optical waveguide [4], nanolaser [5], and piezoelectric power

Control theory for scanning probe microscopy revisited

• Julian Stirling

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 337–345, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.38

• [13]. However, the details of the operation of the feedback loop have been incorrectly modelled, which results in a decreased stability and an exaggerated ringing at the resonant frequency of the piezoelectric actuator (z-piezo). Due to these errors, the feedback controller often cannot maintain

• consider the workings of the PI controller under perfect conditions. First, assume that the tip is stationary above a sample at a position Z, and that the z-piezoelectric actuator for tip positioning is extended by X (Figure 1). For this perfect model X is considered to be directly the output of the PI

• gone unnoticed to date because it has been ‘disguised’ by the more complicated modelling of the response of the various other electrical and electromechanical components of the SPM (amplifiers, piezoelectric actuators). It is helpful to draw an analogy with the most commonly considered control system

Constant-distance mode SECM as a tool to visualize local electrocatalytic activity of oxygen reduction catalysts

• Michaela Nebel,
• Thomas Erichsen and
• Wolfgang Schuhmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 141–151, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.14

• shearforce detection was used for all SECM measurements. A piezoelectric detection system (Sensolytics, Bochum, Germany) that consists of two piezoelectric plates each of them glued onto a brass holder was used for the detection of the shearforce interaction. For the piezo-piezo detection these piezo

Study of mesoporous CdS-quantum-dot-sensitized TiO₂ films by using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and AFM

• Mohamed N. Ghazzal,
• Robert Wojcieszak,
• Gijo Raj and
• Eric M. Gaigneaux

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 68–76, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.6

• nominal curvature radius of 8 nm were used for imaging under ambient conditions (23 °C and 56% relative humidity). Samples were glued onto a magnetic stainless steel disc by using double-face adhesive tape and mounted on the "J" type piezoelectric scanner. The tapping engage set point was set to 1 in

Dynamic nanoindentation by instrumented nanoindentation and force microscopy: a comparative review

• Sidney R. Cohen and
• Estelle Kalfon-Cohen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 815–833, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.93

• degree of bending. The sample–tip motion is actuated by piezoelectric elements, which can be linearized by closed-loop control. The cantilever beam is usually oriented at an angle to the surface, which results in some tangential force being applied in addition to the normal force. A tangential motion

• by a linearized sensor. However, thermal drift and piezo creep can also contribute to the apparent displacement, thus they must be minimized and/or measured and corrected for. This can present a challenge, particularly in AFM, which largely relies on piezoelectric motion transducers. It should be

• instrumental contribution to damping must be accounted for. These inherent instrumental properties include those of the spring (cantilever), of the electronics, and of the piezoelectric transducer. For INI, careful calibration protocols have been described to account for these [64][73]. For SPM there is no

k-space imaging of the eigenmodes of sharp gold tapers for scanning near-field optical microscopy

• Martin Esmann,
• Simon F. Becker,
• Bernard B. da Cunha,
• Jens H. Brauer,
• Ralf Vogelgesang,
• Petra Groß and
• Christoph Lienau

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 603–610, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.67

• cover slip is mounted onto a three-axis piezoelectric stage (PI P-363.3CD). This allows us to slowly approach the sample to the taper over a distance of several hundreds of nanometers in steps of 30 pm until the tuning fork starts to be damped by tip–sample interactions. The damping occurs on a length

Porous polymer coatings as substrates for the formation of high-fidelity micropatterns by quill-like pens

• Michael Hirtz,
• Marcus Lyon,
• Wenqian Feng,
• Andrea E. Holmes,
• Harald Fuchs and
• Pavel A. Levkin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 377–384, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.44

• . Particles smaller than 20 pixels were excluded from analysis to exclude noise-induced artefacts. Dye delivery by microchannel cantilever. The substrate (1) is placed on the stage (2), which can be actuated with a precision of less than 100 nm in the x-, y-, and z-direction by piezoelectric actuators. By

Optimal geometry for a quartz multipurpose SPM sensor

• Julian Stirling

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 370–376, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.43

• Julian Stirling School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, United Kingdom 10.3762/bjnano.4.43 Abstract We propose a geometry for a piezoelectric SPM sensor that can be used for combined AFM/LFM/STM. The sensor utilises symmetry to provide

• microscopes (AFM) and lateral force microscopes (LFM), however, the sensor is more complex. The atomically sharp probe must be combined with a force sensor, usually a cantilever, with either piezoelectric or optical deflection detection. For noncontact AFM (NC-AFM) and dynamic LFM (DLFM), where the sensor is

• of the tip itself. Any bending of the tip will not be detected by the piezoelectric quartz sensor. Thus, treating the tip as a cantilever, its spring constant must be much greater than the effective lateral spring constant for the sensor (klat), otherwise this will result in incorrect force

Photoresponse from single upright-standing ZnO nanorods explored by photoconductive AFM

• Igor Beinik,
• Markus Kratzer,
• Astrid Wachauer,
• Lin Wang,
• Yuri P. Piryatinski,
• Gerhard Brauer,
• Xin Yi Chen,
• Yuk Fan Hsu,
• Aleksandra B. Djurišić and
• Christian Teichert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 208–217, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.21

• temperature) and high exciton binding energy (60 meV) and being piezoelectric, ZnO is one of the most promising semiconductor materials. Fields of application include solar cells [1][2][3][4], piezo-actuators [5], energy harvesting devices [6], and photosensors [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. A common

Catalytic activity of nanostructured Au: Scale effects versus bimetallic/bifunctional effects in low-temperature CO oxidation on nanoporous Au

• Lu-Cun Wang,
• Yi Zhong,
• Haijun Jin,
• Daniel Widmann,
• Jörg Weissmüller and
• R. Jürgen Behm

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 111–128, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.13

• , piezoelectric pulse valves were used to generate gas pulses of typically ~1 × 1016 molecules per pulse. For all measurements presented, these pulses contained 50% Ar as an internal standard to enable quantitative evaluation on an absolute scale. The gas pulses were directed into a quartz-tube microreactor with

Calculation of the effect of tip geometry on noncontact atomic force microscopy using a qPlus sensor

• Julian Stirling and
• Gordon A. Shaw

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 10–19, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.2

• negligible rotation. Experimental validation The resulting lateral motion was measured experimentally for Omicron Nanotechnology qPlus sensors excited mechanically from below by a piezoelectric actuator (Figure 3c). The actuator was driven by a digital lock-in amplifier (Perkin Elmer 7280 DSP). The

• deflection of the qPlus sensor was measured by using a laser Doppler vibrometer (Polytec OFV-522) connected to a lock-in amplifier. The qPlus sensor and piezoelectric actuator was mounted on an encoded translation stage allowing deflection measurements to be recorded in multiple positions on the sensor. A 45

Probing three-dimensional surface force fields with atomic resolution: Measurement strategies, limitations, and artifact reduction

• Mehmet Z. Baykara,
• Omur E. Dagdeviren,
• Todd C. Schwendemann,
• Harry Mönig,
• Eric I. Altman and
• Udo D. Schwarz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 637–650, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.73

• quantitatively and qualitatively, including: thermal and electronic drift during the measurement, nonlinearities and creep associated with piezoelectric scan elements used in the microscope, variability of tip-apex structure and chemistry between different experiments, and elastic deformations of the tip under

• during force-spectroscopy experiments, the use of digital electronics for NC-AFM detection and control generally eliminates the effects of electronic drifts on measured data. Piezo nonlinearities and piezo creep Positioning devices that employ piezoelectric materials to realize voltage-controlled

• relative positioning of the tip and sample are widely used in SPM experiments (see, e.g., Figure 2) [38][39][40]. Despite subpicometer positioning accuracy, piezoelectric scanners display fundamental shortcomings. The most important limitation originates from the fact that the relationship between applied

Mapping mechanical properties of organic thin films by force-modulation microscopy in aqueous media

• Jianming Zhang,
• Zehra Parlak,
• Carleen M. Bowers,
• Terrence Oas and
• Stefan Zauscher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 464–474, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.53

• feedback controller of the AFM keeps the tip–sample force constant during the surface scan. In addition, however, a piezoelectric transducer in the cantilever holder was used to excite the cantilever with a small amplitude, off-resonance frequency. A lock-in amplifier (AMETEK model 7280) was used to

Functionalised zinc oxide nanowire gas sensors: Enhanced NO₂ gas sensor response by chemical modification of nanowire surfaces

• Eric R. Waclawik,
• Jin Chang,
• Andrea Ponzoni,
• Isabella Concina,
• Dario Zappa,
• Elisabetta Comini,
• Nunzio Motta,
• Guido Faglia and
• Giorgio Sberveglieri

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 368–377, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.43

• an effect that is likely to modify the chemiresistor response significantly [3]. ZnO is one of the most widely studied materials, due to its promising optical, optoelectronic and piezoelectric properties [9][10]. Furthermore, ZnO materials can be reliably synthesised in a variety of different

Simultaneous current, force and dissipation measurements on the Si(111) 7×7 surface with an optimized qPlus AFM/STM technique

• Zsolt Majzik,
• Martin Setvín,
• Andreas Bettac,
• Albrecht Feltz,
• Vladimír Cháb and
• Pavel Jelínek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 249–259, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.28

• , piezoelectric quartz tuning forks similar to those used as frequency references in watches. The configuration when one of the prongs is attached to a solid substrate and the free prong acts as a cantilever with the capability of self-sensing, is called qPlus, named by Giessibl [12]. One of the largest benefits

Transport through molecular junctions

• Jan M. van Ruitenbeek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 691–692, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.74

• for addressing molecules, which typically have a length of the order of one nanometre. Several methods have now been established that can meet the requirements, of which three are particularly prominent: The electrode separation can be mechanically adjusted at will, through piezoelectric actuators, in

Distinguishing magnetic and electrostatic interactions by a Kelvin probe force microscopy–magnetic force microscopy combination

• Miriam Jaafar,
• Oscar Iglesias-Freire,
• Luis Serrano-Ramón,
• Manuel Ricardo Ibarra,
• Jose Maria de Teresa and
• Agustina Asenjo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 552–560, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.59

• conservative interactions. In the amplitude modulation mode, the amplitude is the main feedback parameter and thus the movement of the piezoelectric is used to build the topography image. The frequency shift changes are recorded at a certain distance to build the magnetic image, thus the MFM images were