Resolution and field-of-view often represent a fundamental tradeoff in microscopy. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), in which a cantilevered probe deflects under the influence of local forces as it scans across a substrate, is a key example of this tradeoff with high resolution imaging being largely limited to small areas. This paper demonstrates massively parallel AFM with >1000 probes through a cantilever-free probe architecture and a scalable optical detection method. Optically reflective conical probes on a compliant film create a distributed optical lever, translating probe motion into an optical signal with sub-10 nm vertical precision. The scalability allows high-resolution imaging over large areas.
Publisher
Nature Communications
Published On
Jan 15, 2021
Authors
Wenhan Cao, Nourin Alsharif, Zhongjie Huang, Alice E. White, YuHuang Wang, Keith A. Brown
Tags
atomic force microscopy
high resolution
parallel imaging
optical detection
scalable technology
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