One of the most popular and versatile tool in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology is the microscope based on the platform of Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM). For more than 30 years, this type of microscopes has been employed in a wide range of research fields, such as materials science, nanoelectronics or biophysics, playing a key role in observing, interacting and understanding surfaces and interfacial phenomena, all at the nanoscale.
The key element of these microscopes is a nanometric sized probe that is scanned across surfaces with nanometric precision, allowing a set of physical and chemical information of the surface to be obtained, such as topography, electrical properties, or even chemical composition. The outstanding versatility of these multipurpose microscopes is bestowed by the extended variety of probes available in the market, with different shapes, materials, and properties, which makes possible so many different experiments and measurements to be carried out.
In an ideal scenario, the probe has a very well defined geometry and properties that remains unaltered during the entire experiment. However, these desired features are not fulfilled in the current technology and there is an unavoidable variability, wear and damage of the probes during the experiments and usage. Although this is broadly accepted as an inevitable drawback in most of the SPM imaging modes, there are still very powerful SPM techniques that become unreliable and difficult to operate due to a strong dependency on probe’s shape and chemical composition.
In our project we focus on designing, fabricating and testing new probes to make these very powerful yet demanding SPM modes more reliable, easier to use and, in consequence, to be widely employed.
