Photothermal excitation represents a significant instrumentation advance for imaging with dynamic modes of the atomic force microscope (AFM). Using a power-modulated laser to directly drive the cantilever oscillation provides substantial benefits over conventional piezoelectric excitation. Here we discuss photothermal excitation and its implementation as blueDrive by Oxford Instruments Asylum Research. We explain its operating principles and discuss its use for a range of practical applications. The results show that blueDrive sets new standards for imaging in liquid, visualizing dynamic events, and mapping nanomechanical properties.

AFM-based nanoelectrical modes have numerous applications in fields ranging from semiconductors to biology. The data produced have traditionally been in the form of a 2D map, generated in contact mode, with a single electrical data point per XY location. Electrical ramps or spectra would be generated at a few, carefully selected locations. This article discusses a new approach to nanoelectrical imaging that creates an electrical data cube and a correlated nanomechanical data cube while operating at normal imaging speeds. This approach avoids contact mode imaging, thus extending electrical measurements to soft and fragile samples and improving measurement consistency. Moreover, this is a general approach that is applicable to most nanoelectrical modes and applications.

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is used in a wide range of applications for imaging sub-nanometer resolution topography, as well as for analysis of physical characteristics (such as surface stiffness and electromagnetic properties). While surface imaging and characterization on the nanoscale is of great value and is widely used across all fields of science, correlation with other types of microscopy can greatly enhance the value of those measurements. Here, we discuss a new approach that uses a small, ultra-thin AFM, which allows it to be integrated with standard light microscopes. The authors believe the design will allow for a new paradigm in microscopy, by enabling all the advantages of AFM to be combined with the advanced imaging capabilities of research-grade light microscopes.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) encourages independent inventors who are not patent professionals to file and prosecute their own patent applications. Self-help books are useful guides for navigating through the PTO’s many laws and rules. When an inventor has an idea, he should document it, have the document witnessed, search all public records for novelty and unobviousness, and finally file an application with the PTO. The inventor defends his idea with an Examiner from the PTO and, if all requirements are met, receives a patent that grants the inventor a monopoly to make, use, and sell his invention for a period of time.