The concept of “seeing by feeling” as a way to circumvent limitations on sight is universal on the macroscopic scale—reading Braille, feeling one's way around a dark room, etc. The development of the atomic force microscope (AFM) in 1986 extended this concept to imaging in the nanoscale. While there are classroom demonstrations that use a tactile probe to map the topography or some other property of a sample, the rastering of the probe over the sample is manually controlled, which is both tedious and potentially inaccurate. Other groups have used simulation or tele-operation of an AFM probe. In this paper we describe a teaching AFM with complete computer control to map out topographic and magnetic properties of a “crystal” consisting of two-dimensional arrays of spherical marble “atoms.” Our AFM is well suited for lessons on the “Big Ideas of Nanoscale” such as tools and instrumentation, as well as a pre-teaching activity for groups with remote access AFM or mobile AFM. The principle of operation of our classroom AFM is the same as that of a real AFM, excepting the nature of the force between sample and probe.
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December 2015
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December 01 2015
A Computer-Controlled Classroom Model of an Atomic Force Microscope
Tyler A. Engstrom;
Tyler A. Engstrom
Pennsylvania State University
, University Park, PA
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Matthew M. Johnson;
Matthew M. Johnson
Pennsylvania State University
, University Park, PA
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Peter C. Eklund;
Peter C. Eklund
*
Pennsylvania State University
, University Park, PA
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Timothy J. Russin
Timothy J. Russin
KLA-Tencor Corporation
, Milpitas, CA
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*
In memoriam
Phys. Teach. 53, 536–538 (2015)
Citation
Tyler A. Engstrom, Matthew M. Johnson, Peter C. Eklund, Timothy J. Russin; A Computer-Controlled Classroom Model of an Atomic Force Microscope. Phys. Teach. 1 December 2015; 53 (9): 536–538. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4935764
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