About Molecular Forces Apparatus
Scanning probe microscopic (SPM) methods are widely used for various characterization tasks, both as imaging or spatially fixed variant. Commonly a lot of effort has to be spent to counter effects of thermal drift, as well as vibrational noise, in all spatial directions. This limits possible resolution, the maximum measurement time, and creates artifacts. While some very measurement task specific solutions exist, those solutions are not generic enough to adapt them from one sample system to others, and utilization in noisy environments is not possible with to dates technology.
Technology
Real-time localization of sample vs. probe using laser-interferometry from different directions allows both, a direct compensation for drift, and a compensation of thermal expansion in all translational and rotational directions. This allows for positional clamping for static measurements as well as real-time compensation for dynamic experiments down to thermodynamic limits without experiment time constraints. In addition, it opens the possibility to compensate for noise online, enabling the utilization of nanometer precise metrology in production environments.
ADVANTAGES
- “real time” correction for thermal drift and noise
- absolute distance clamping
- precise positioning
- method independent
- application in various scientific and production tools possible