The mission of the LNNano Atomic Force Microscopy Laboratory is to provide users with a high-performance research infrastructure, currently operating four different microscopes. The different platforms offer a wide variety of techniques in the fields of physics, chemistry, materials science, and biology. A team of specialists and technicians is on hand to help carry out research projects, pushing the limits of the instruments available. Atomic force microscopy is a very popular tool for characterizing surfaces thanks to its operational flexibility, the variety of properties analyzed, and the resolution on the nanometer scale.

The AFM NX10 is a flexible instrument for analyzing samples with different formats and dimensions. It is equipped with several optional modules, which make it possible to carry out a wide variety of related techniques. It stands out for its joint operation with its optical microscope, used for a previous optical location of the area of interest. It is suitable for scanning areas from 2µm x 2µm up to 100µm x 100µm, with temperature and humidity control.

Specifications:

100µm x 100µm XY Drive
• 10µm Z Drive
• 24bit controller
• Stage for XY displacement of the sample
motorized (20mm x 20mm)
• Environmental chamber for humidity control
relative from 0.5% to 80%
• Room temperature control up to 60°C
• Optical microscope with 10x magnification objective
• Open liquid cell

Techniques:

• Contact or Intermittent Contact (AFM)
• Lateral force (LF-AFM)
• Phase contrast
• Modulated force
• Force spectroscopy
• Magnetic Force (MFM)
• Electric force (EFM)
• Surface potential (KPFM)
• Capacitance (SCM)
• Capacitive coupling (dC/dz)
• Conductivity (c-AFM)
• Piezoresponse (PFM)
• Nanoindentation
• Nanolithography”

The MultiMode8 AFM is an instrument suitable for high-resolution analysis, allowing scans in areas from 500nm x 500nm up to 10µm x 10µm. Used for analyzing nanostructured materials such as 2D materials, nanofibrils and nanoparticles. The limitation on the dimensions of the samples is of a maximum of 15mm in diameter and 2mm in thickness.

Specifications

• 10µm x 10µm XY drive
• 4µm Z Drive
• NanoScope V 16bit controller
• Stage for XY displacement of the manual sample
(2mm x 2mm)
• Environmental chamber for humidity control (5%)
• Optical microscope with 10x magnification objective

Techniques

• Contact or Intermittent Contact (AFM)
• PeakForce Tapping
• Lateral force (LF-AFM)
• Phase contrast
• Modulated force
• Force spectroscopy
• Magnetic Force (MFM)
• Electric Power (EFM)
• Surface potential (KPFM)
• PeakForce TUNA (PF-TUNA)
• Piezoresponse (PFM)
• Nanomechanics (PF-QNM)

Description: The AFM NanoIR2-s is an instrument that combines infrared spectroscopy and imaging experiments with the spatial resolution of atomic force microscopy, surpassing the diffraction limit of conventional infrared techniques. Thus, it enables the correlation between topography and chemical composition of surface domains with spatial resolution in the order of 50nm. It is suitable for scans from 2µm x 2µm up to 80µm x 80µm. The limitation on the dimensions of the samples is of a maximum of 20mm in diameter and 5mm in thickness.

Specifications

•80µm x 80µm XY drive
• 4µm Z Drive
• Stage for XY displacement of the sample
motorized (10mm x 10mm)
• QCL laser (950cm-1 to 1900cm-1)
• OPO laser (2700cm-1 to 3600cm-1)
• Environmental chamber for relative humidity control ( 5%)
• Optical microscope with 10x magnification objective

Techniques

• Contact or intermittent contact (AFM)
•Infrared imaging on contact or intermittent contact (AFM-IR)
• Infrared spectroscopy (AFM-IR)
• s-SNOM imaging and spectroscopy (950 cm-1 to 1150 cm-1 and 1700 cm-1 to 1850 cm-1)
• s-SNOM spectroscopy (CO2 laser only)
• Lateral force (LF-AFM)
• Phase contrast
• Force spectroscopy
• Modulated Force
• Magnetic Force (MFM)
• Electric Power (EFM)

Description: The BioAFM is an experimental platform consisting of an atomic force microscope integrated with a module for microfluidic injection and extraction via the probe, coupled to an inverted fluorescence optical microscope. It allows for analyses involving biological samples, from bionanostructured systems to direct spectroscopic measurements on living cells, force measurements on biological membranes, cell adhesion on different substrates, probe functionalization, and measurements of interaction with the surface of cells and tissues. It is suitable for scans from 500nm x 500nm to 100µm x 100µm. Samples can be analyzed directly in Petri dishes, immersed in culture medium and with temperature control, or on glass slides or conventional AFM sample holders.

Specifications:

•NanoWizard4 100µm x 100µm XY drive
•NanoWizard4 15µm Z drive
• CellHesion200 100µm Z drive
• Motorized Stage for XY displacement of the sample (20mm x 20mm)
• Cytosurge pressurization system (-1bar to 5bar)
•Temperature controller for Petri dish
ambient up to 60°C
• Zeiss Observer 5 inverted optical microscope
• Objective lenses with magnification
10x, 20x, 40x and 63x
• Fluorescence system with DAPI, GFP, TX filters and DsRed
• Phase contrast and DIC filters
•Top optical microscope with variable objective with up to 7x magnification