Final Report Summary - 3D-FM (Taking Force Microscopy into the Third Dimension)
We have investigated two different approaches to use AFM (Atomic Force Microscope) to not only obtain 2D surface information of a specimen, but to also obtain 3D information from below the surface.
We have studied the contrast mechanism and signal to noise ratio of the acoustic sub-surface technique to give it a firmer theoretical basis.
We have demonstrated a new detection mechanism to detect the motion of a MRFM (Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy) force sensor using a SQUID (Superconducting QUantum Interference Device). We have built a low temperature set-up to demonstrate this new detection mechanism. We have been able to show that we can cool a MRFM force sensor to 25 mK, leading to an unprecedented force sensitivity of 0.5 aN/sqrt(Hz) and we have shown that a full experiment with this instrument was successful.
We have studied the contrast mechanism and signal to noise ratio of the acoustic sub-surface technique to give it a firmer theoretical basis.
We have demonstrated a new detection mechanism to detect the motion of a MRFM (Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy) force sensor using a SQUID (Superconducting QUantum Interference Device). We have built a low temperature set-up to demonstrate this new detection mechanism. We have been able to show that we can cool a MRFM force sensor to 25 mK, leading to an unprecedented force sensitivity of 0.5 aN/sqrt(Hz) and we have shown that a full experiment with this instrument was successful.