Newsletter 2/2010

New AFM cantilever price list available!

New models for improved AFM operation and better results

Atomic Force is releasing its new Cantilever Price List 2010-6, including all cantilever models from Olympus Japan as well as all cantilever models manufactured by Asylum Research, including the ASYMFM and ASYELEC types. The all new -R3 models are now available from Olympus, and feature the new, improved cantilever substrates with vertical side walls. The new cantilever substrates are much easier to handle with tweezers and produce less Si debris when taking them out of the packaging and inserting them into the AFM cantilever holder.

The new models -R3 are distributed in GelPaks of 100, offered at the same attractive price per cantilever as the wafer models -W2. A big advantage of the new -R3 GelPak models is a simplified handling compared to regular wafer packaging.

New models are:

• OMCL-AC160TS-R3 and OMCL-AC160TN-R3
• OMCL-AC160TS-E3 (Quantity between 5 and 100)
• OMCL-AC200TS-R3 and OMCL-AC200TN-R3
• OMCL-AC200TS-E3 (Quantity between 5 and 100)

Types OMCL-AC160TS-R3 and OMCL-AC160TN-R3 also feature a lower spring constant of around 26 N/m and resonance frequency of around 300 kHz.

If you would like additional information, please download the new Olympus cantilever brochure here, or email us for more information.

Order your cantilever supply now!

Adjust the order value to your needs with the -E models, so you can match any given budget easily and get the maximum numbers of cantilevers for it. We are flexible and can divide one order over multiple invoices.

Cypher achieves true atomic resolution in liquid!

Recently Asylum Research achieved true atomic resolution on a calcite crystal in liquid using AC mode imaging. The work was carried out at Asylum Research by CEO and co-founder Jason Cleveland using a regular production version Cypher AFM without any modifications. The image shows the height channel of a 15 nm scan at a 1Å vertical scale. The point defect remained visible through several images and demonstrates that the resolution is truly atomic.

For more information about Cypher please download the new Cypher brochure here, or email us for additional information.

New members of the Atomic Force sales team

Since our last newsletter we have also expanded our sales team with the addition of Benjamin Holmes as our new Sales Manager and Daniel Sobiak as our new sales asistant. Ben believes firmly in an application-oriented customer relationship, an approach developed over many years selling AFM and other analysis instrumentation in-vacuum. "Many sales people are driven by targets, sales statistics and spreadsheets but for me real satisfaction is gained when a properly configured instrument starts producing research-grade data, thus helping to push the boundaries of our knowledge" says Ben. "I practically leapt at the chance to work with Atomic Force and with Asylum Research, as they are clearly the AFM supplier with the highest scientific integrity and a truly research-oriented approach".

"We are very excited about adding Benjamin to our european team," said Dr. Roland Goschke, Managing Director of Atomic Force F&E GmbH. "His extensive background in AFM, both UHV and ambient, will be a great asset to Atomic Force in improving our strength: direct contact to our customers."

Adds Ludger Weisser, Managing Director of Atomic Force: "I am very glad to have Benjamin on board since working with him is really exciting. I am very impressed with his deep technical knowledge and with his language skills."

Having previously worked in Germany, Italy and the UK Ben is fluently trilingual and is working on a couple more languages as well. As such he will have particular responsibilities for Southern Europe, France and the low countries where he is also based.

You can contact Ben directly by phone at +49-621-762117-28 or email him.

New Application Notes

• Band Excitation Scanning Probe Microscopies: Traveling through the Fourier Space
  Stephen Jesse, Amit Kumar, Sergei V. Kalinin, Oak Ridge National Laboratory;  Anil Gannepali and Roger Proksch, Asylum Research
  
  
• Applications of the NanoRack™ Sample Stretching Stage to a Commercial Impact Copolymer
  Dalia G. Yablon and Andy Tsou, ExxonMobil Research and Engineering, Clinton, NJ
  
  
• Crack Propagation in Bone Captured with In Situ Mechanical Testing During AFM
  O. Katsamenis, T. Boughen, P. J. Thurner, University of Southampton, UK

Asylum's new NanoRack™ Sample Stretching Stage for the MFP-3D™ AFM  is featured in the Yablon and Katsamenis application notes.  Additional information on the NanoRack can be found in the product release.

A complete list of Application Notes on other topics can also be found on the Asylum Research web site.