Search results for "Atomic Force Microscopy"

Dynamic studies on living cells with an atomic force fluorescence microscope

2001

Analysis of the reaction of bone structure to mechanical stimulation is a key issue in understanding the origins of osteoporosis and mechanical adaptation of living bone to external forces. This is thought to be regulated on a cellular level. We have investigated quantitative mechanical stimulation of single bone cells and their immediate intracellular calcium responses using a combination of an atomic force microscope (AFM) and a fluorescence microscope, developed in our laboratory. The force stimulation system can apply quantified forces in the pico- and nano-newton regime on exactly defined positions of a cell. We present here the first measurements using this system on the mechanically …

Splitting of Surface-Immobilized Multicompartment Micelles into Clusters upon Charge Inversion

2016

International audience; We investigate a morphological transition of surface-immobilized triblock terpolymer micelles: the splitting into well-defined clusters of satellite micelles upon pH changes. The multicompartment micelles are formed in aqueous solution of ABC triblock terpolymers consisting of a hydrophobic polybutadiene block, a weak polyanionic poly(methacrylic acid) block, and a weak polycationic poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) block. They are subsequently immobilized on silicon wafer surfaces by dip-coating. The splitting process is triggered by a pH change to strongly basic pH, which goes along with a charge reversal of the micelles. We find that the aggregation number…

Wide range local resistance imaging on fragile materials by conducting probe atomic force microscopy in intermittent contact mode

2016

International audience; An imaging technique associating a slowly intermittent contact mode of atomic force microscopy (AFM) with a home-made multi-purpose resistance sensing device is presented. It aims at extending the widespread resistance measurements classically operated in contact mode AFM to broaden their application fields to soft materials (molecular electronics, biology) and fragile or weakly anchored nano-objects, for which nanoscale electrical characterization is highly demanded and often proves to be a challenging task in contact mode. Compared with the state of the art concerning less aggressive solutions for AFM electrical imaging, our technique brings a significantly wider r…

Mechanical properties of the nanometer scale pre-crystalline order of a poly (ethylene terepthalate) / poly (ethylene naphthalene) blend

2006

A previous study carried out on PET has shown that this polymer undergoes a continuous structural modification over a wide cooling rate interval when solidified from the melt[1] assuming a semi-crystalline structure below 2 K s 1 and a completely amorphous one above 100 K s 1. Most important was the existence of a state of intermediate order between the above cooling rates which was evidenced by the absence of crystalline reflections in the WAXS patterns and the occurrence of SAXS maxima[2] and exothermic peak areas (DSC) in the cooling rate range above 2 K s 1. Microhardness (MH) measurements revealed that this phase affects the mechanical properties[3] plausible if one thinks of crystalli…

Aluminum oxide nucleation in the early stages of atomic layer deposition on epitaxial graphene

2020

In this work, the nucleation and growth mechanism of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) in the early stages of the direct atomic layer deposition (ALD) on monolayer epitaxial graphene (EG) on silicon carbide (4H-SiC) has been investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Raman spectroscopy. Contrary to what is typically observed for other types of graphene, a large and uniform density of nucleation sites was observed in the case of EG and ascribed to the presence of the buffer layer at EG/SiC interface. The deposition process was characterized by Al2O3 island growth in the very early stages, followed by the formation of a continuous Al2O3 film (2.4 nm thick) after only 40 ALD cycles due to the isla…

Membrane Stiffness of Animal Cells Challenged by Osmotic Stress

2006

Synthesis of multi-color luminescent ZnO nanoparticles by ultra-short pulsed laser ablation

2020

Abstract Crystalline ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) are synthesized by ultra-short femtosecond (fs) pulsed laser ablation (PLA) of a zinc plate in deionized water, and are investigated by optical absorption and time resolved luminescence spectra in combination with the morphology and structure analysis. The comparison with previous experiments based on short nanosecond (ns) PLA highlights that pulse duration is a crucial parameter to determine the size and the optical properties of ZnO NPs. While short PLA generates NPs with average size S ‾ of ~ 30 nm, ultrashort PLA allows to achieve much smaller NPs, S ‾ ⩽ 10  nm, that evidence weak quantum confinement effects on both the absorption edge and th…

Second-harmonic Generation Microscopy of Carbon Nanotubes

2012

We image an individual single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) by second-harmonic generation (SHG) and transmission electron microscopy and propose that SHG microscopy could be used to probe the handedness of chiral SWNTs.

Atomic Force Microscopy and Spectroscopy

2021

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is probably the most celebrated technique falling into the family of experimental methods known as scanning probe microscopy. AFM is primarily designed to obtain the morphology of the surface of a solid material by using the force of interaction between an inert probe and the sample. The AFM microscope can generally be operated in many ways for morphology investigations, but they can be roughly classified into two main groups: static- and dynamic-deflection modes. Since atomic force microscopy makes use of tip-surface interaction to reconstruct the surface morphology of materials, it is of fundamental importance to fully understand the nature and properties of …

Luminescent silicon nanocrystals produced by near-infrared nanosecond pulsed laser ablation in water

2014

Abstract We report the investigation of luminescent nanoparticles produced by ns pulsed Nd:YAG laser ablation of silicon in water. Combined characterization by AFM and IR techniques proves that these nanoparticles have a mean size of ∼3 nm and a core–shell structure consisting of a Si-nanocrystal surrounded by an oxide layer. Time resolved luminescence spectra evidence visible and UV emissions; a band around 1.9 eV originates from Si-nanocrystals, while two bands centered at 2.7 eV and 4.4 eV are associated with oxygen deficient centers in the SiO 2 shell.