Researchers develop 'MicroMegascope': imaging with a tuning fork

Currently, atomic force microscopes (AFMs) are one of the most widely used tools for imaging, measuring, and manipulating matter at the nanoscale. One of the key components of an AFM is a microscale oscillator, which scans the topographical features of a sample. Unfortunately, however, the fabrication of microscale oscillators is a complex and expensive process.

In a new paper published in Nanotechnology, a team of researchers from the Laboratoire de Physique Statistique at the École Normale Supérieure, CNRS, in Paris, have demonstrated that a 7-centimeter-long aluminum tuning fork can replace the microscale oscillator in an AFM, and still produce images of nanoscale resolution and equal quality.

"By analogy, to feel a roughness of 100 nm with an instrument 7 cm long is like feeling the thickness of a virus under the antenna of the Eiffel tower," coauthor Antoine Niguès at the École Normale Supérieure told Phys.org. "Moreover, the use of this large tuning fork considerably reduces the manufacturing costs of the AFM and greatly simplifies its use."

In addition, the modified AFM, which the researchers call "MicroMegascope," can image objects that are immersed in liquid without any loss of quality, and without requiring any adjustments. This is a big advantage over conventional AFMs, which suffer from reduced image quality and require alternative probes to operate in liquid environments.