CHEMICAL NANOFABRICATION & CHARACTERIZATION EQUIPMENT
DIGITAL INSTRUMENTS DIMENSION 3100 ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPES
Equipment Specifications
- Noise level of < 2Å RMS in vertical (Z) dimension
- X-Y imaging area approx. (90µm)2
- Z range approx. +/-6µm
- 150µm to 675 µm horizontal viewing area for optical microscope
Description
An Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) provides 3 dimensional topographic information about a sample by probing its surface structure with a very sharp tip. The tip is scanned laterally across the surface, and the vertical movements of the tip are recorded and used to construct a quantitative 3 dimensional topographic map. The lateral resolution of the image can be as small as the tip radius (typically 5-15 nm), and the vertical resolution can be on the order of angstroms.
Technique Advantages
- Quantitative topographical information at high lateral resolution
- Little or no sample prep in many cases
- Non-destructive
- Applicable to conductive and insulating materials
Typical Applications
- High-resolution surface profilometry
- Surface roughness measurements
- Microstructural studies of metallic, ceramic, semiconducting and polymeric materials
- Defect and failure analysis
- Pit analysis for optical disk storage media
- Magnetic domain and surface roughness analysis for computer hard-disks
- Semiconductor device structural analyses
- Surface cleaning and polishing studies
- Phase separation in polymers
- Critical Dimension Measurements
- Investigation of local mechanical properties (i.e. stiffness, adhesion, friction)
- High-resolution imaging of biological samples
- Studies of nano-scale forces
