Search results for "force microscopy"
showing 10 items of 247 documents
Tuning molecular self-assembly on bulk insulator surfaces by anchoring of the organic building blocks.
2013
Molecular self-assembly constitutes a versatile strategy for creating functional structures on surfaces. Tuning the subtle balance between intermolecular and molecule-surface interactions allows structure formation to be tailored at the single-molecule level. While metal surfaces usually exhibit interaction strengths in an energy range that favors molecular self-assembly, dielectric surfaces having low surface energies often lack sufficient interactions with adsorbed molecules. As a consequence, application-relevant, bulk insulating materials pose significant challenges when considering them as supporting substrates for molecular self-assembly. Here, the current status of molecular self-ass…
Impact of local compressive stress on the optical transitions of single organic dye molecules
2012
The ability to mechanically control the optical properties of individual molecules is a grand challenge in nanoscience and could enable the manipulation of chemical reactivity at the single-molecule level. In the past, light has been used to alter the emission wavelength of individual molecules or modulate the energy transfer quantum yield between them. Furthermore, tensile stress has been applied to study the force dependence of protein folding/unfolding and of the chemistry and photochemistry of single molecules, although in these mechanical experiments the strength of the weakest bond limits the amount of applicable force. Here, we show that compressive stress modifies the photophysical …
Assembly of modular asymmetric organic-inorganic polyoxometalate hybrids into anisotropic nanostructures.
2010
Three organic-inorganic hybrid Mn-Anderson polyoxometalates (POMs), with both symmetrical and asymmetrical appended groups, have been synthesized, identified using electrospray mass spectrometry, and isolated using an approach that allows the three AA, BB, and AB compounds to be structurally characterized. Investigation of the self-assembly of the hybrids on hydrophilic surfaces reveals the formation of nanofibres with characteristics that reflect the nature of the substitution of the POM yielding a route to the programmed assembly of anisotropic hybrid nanostructures.
Monitoring the formation of biosilica catalysed by histidine-tagged silicatein.
2004
Surface bound silicatein retains its biocatalytic activity, which was demonstrated by monitoring the immobilisation of silicatein using a histidine-tag chelating anchor and the subsequent biosilicification of SiO(2) on surfaces by surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy.
Single quantum dot emission at telecom wavelengths from metamorphic InAs/InGaAs nanostructures grown on GaAs substrates
2011
3 figuras, 3 páginas.
Formation and Evolution of Nanoscale Metal Structures on ITO Surface by Nanosecond Laser Irradiations of Thin Au and Ag Films
2012
The effect of nanosecond laser irradiations on 5 nm thick sputter-deposited Au and Ag films on Indium-Tin-Oxide surface is investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). After 500, 750, and 1000 mJ/cm 2 fluence irradiations, the breakup of the Au and Ag films into nanoscale islands is observed as a consequence of fast melting and solidification processes. The mean nanoparticles size and surface density are quantified, as a function of the laser fluence, by the AFM and SEM analyses. In particular, the comparison between the Au and Ag islands reveals the formation of larger islands in the case of Ag for each fixed fluence. The mechanism of the nanoscale …
The zero field self-organization of cobalt/surfactant nanocomposite thin films
2009
Cobalt nanostructures have been prepared by a chemical route based on the Co(II) reduction in the confined space of cobalt bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate (Co(DEHSS)(2)) reverse micelles dispersed in n-heptane. This procedure involves the rapid formation of surfactant softly coated Co nanostructures followed by a slow separation process of the magnetic-field responsive Co/surfactant nanocomposites from the liquid phase. The detailed structure of thin films of the Co/surfactant nanocomposites has been investigated by scanning force microscopy (SFM). The thin films were characterized by different anisotropic features. Micrometric long domains of self-aligned ellipsoidal NPs (tens of nanometer…
Lateral force microscopy of multiwalled carbon nanotubes
2009
Carbon nanotubes are usually imaged with the atomic force microscope (AFM) in non-contact mode. However, in many applications, such as mechanical manipulation or elasticity measurements, contact mode is used. The forces affecting the nanotube are then considerable and not fully understood. In this work lateral forces were measured during contact mode imaging with an AFM across a carbon nanotube. We found that, qualitatively, both magnitude and sign of the lateral forces to the AFM tip were independent of scan direction and can be concluded to arise from the tip slipping on the round edges of the nanotube. The dependence on the normal force applied to the tip and on the ratio between nanotub…
Magnetoelectric coupling driven by inverse magnetostriction in multiferroic BiMn3Mn4O12
2013
By means of neutron powder diffraction, we investigated the effect of the polar Bi$^{3+}$ ion on the magnetic ordering of the Mn$^{3+}$ ions in BiMn$_3$Mn$_4$O$_{12}$, the counterpart with \textit{quadruple} perovskite structure of the \textit{simple} perovskite BiMnO$_3$. The data are consistent with a \textit{noncentrosymmetric} spacegroup $Im$ which contrasts the \textit{centrosymmetric} one $I2/m$ previously reported for the isovalent and isomorphic compound LaMn$_3$Mn$_4$O$_{12}$, which gives evidence of a Bi$^{3+}$-induced polarization of the lattice. At low temperature, the two Mn$^{3+}$ sublattices of the $A'$ and $B$ sites order antiferromagnetically (AFM) in an independent manner …
Some experimental issues of AFM tip blind estimation. The effect of noise and resolution
2006
The convolution of tip shape on sample topography can introduce significant inaccuracy in an AFM image, when the tip radius is comparable to the typical dimension of the sample features to be observed. The blind estimation method allows one to obtain information on the AFM tip through an unknown characterizer sample and thus to perform the deconvolution of the tip shape from an image. When applying the blind estimation method to determine the AFM tip shape, some apparently trivial issues relating to the experimental operating parameters must be taken into account. In this paper, the effects of the operating parameters, e.g., sampling intervals (resolution) and instrumental noise, have been …