News Ticker: Imaging & Microscopy 2/2009

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 2009
• Weight: 818 KB
• Volume: 11
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1439-4243
• DOI: 10.1002/imic.200990044

✦ Synopsis

News Ticker Tip-enhanced Near-field Optical Microscopy

L. Eligal and coworkers described a simple method of fabricating gold tips for tip-enhanced near-field optical microscopy using a single step direct current electrochemical etch. Within a few minutes high quality gold tips with a radius of curvature ~40 nm and with an aspect ratio suitable for shear force measurement have been produced reproducibly. The so-produced tips provide e.g., near field images of single quantum dots.

Rev. Sci. Instrum. 80, 033701 ( 2009) » Dynamic Model of Tuning Fork improved B.P. Ng and co-workers from the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology presented a two coupled oscillators model to describe the dynamics of a tuning fork with a probe attached. The two coupled oscillators are unbalanced only in their effective masses and the damping ratios. They demonstrate a good accuracy of the model by applying a frequency domain system identification approach in experimental investigation of various probe attachment cases. Subsequently the effectiveness of the model is shown in quantitative analysis of the noise performance and the sensitivity of force sensing with a tuning fork probe. Compared with existing models, the proposed model can more accurately characterize the dynamics of a tuning fork probe.