Top-Class AFM for Today's and Future Bio Applications

Further information

CleanDrive: stability in air and liquid with photothermal excitation

Photothermal excitation of the cantilever provides unparalleled stability, a linear frequency response, and a high excitation bandwidth in air and liquid environments. These benefits allow measurements at multiple frequencies and highspeed applications and open new horizons for innovative new measurement modes (e.g. Cytomass Monitor).

These advantages are amplified in liquids since only the cantilever beam is excited and the liquid environment remains largely unperturbed.

The DriveAFM, with its small light spots, is compatible with the use of small cantilevers, which bring several advantages in terms of performance, sensitivity and speed.

Ultra-low noise

The DriveAFM has a very low overall noise floor, which is achieved through a combination of a low-noise/low-coherence superluminescent diode, a low-noise/high-bandwidth photodetector used in the beam deflection detection module and the low-noise/high-bandwidth CX Controller. This is the basis for the stable, sensitive, and high-resolution imaging and force spectroscopy capability of the DriveAFM.

Direct drive scanner

The DriveAFM exploits the power of direct drive piezo actuation. The 1:1, non-geared actuation scheme of the DriveAFM’s flexure scanner provides more force and can drive stiffer scanners. The resulting higher resonance frequency of the scanner components allows for a higher available actuation bandwidth than with geared drives of the same scan size. The direct drive scanner actuation in combination with the low noise 28-bit CX Controller allows for both imaging at large scales and at high resolution without any compromise. As a result the DriveAFM is the perfect solution for high-resolution imaging of demanding samples such as nanostructures, proteins, or polymeric structures (e.g. DNA), and also for larger, micrometer-sized structures.

Full motorization

The DriveAFM is the first fully motorized AFM system that can be integrated with an inverted optical microscope. The adjustment of the two light sources for the beam deflection detection system and the CleanDrive photothermal excitation, as well as the photodetector, are fully motorized and can be controlled from the software. The tip approach to the sample is also motorized. The full motorization not only contributes to the ease of use but also allows new possibilities to fully automate the system.

DriveAFM for biology and life sciences

The DriveAFM plays out all its advantages when it comes to biological applications. The full motorization allows adjusting the lasers and photodetector, and navigating the sample, without interfering with a temperature-controlled environment. CleanDrive excitation provides reliable and clean cantilever tuning in liquid environments. The insensitivity of the CleanDrive towards environmental changes and the sensitivity of small cantilevers facilitate imaging of delicate samples over long periods of time with ease.

Seamless integration of the DriveAFM with an inverted optical microscope allows transmitted light and fluorescence microscopy to be combined with AFM imaging and force spectroscopy. The light sources‘ wavelengths used for CleanDrive (785 nm) and the deflection detection (840 nm) were selected to avoid interference with biological samples and to make fluorescence imaging possible.

The DriveAFM comes with a new line of accessories for biological applications from single-molecule investigations to live cell observations. It includes the new Petri dish holder and the new 150 µm z-actuator, which is essential for cell adhesion experiments. Both sample holders are designed to maintain biological samples at physiological temperature and to be ultimately converted into 2-chamber cell incubators.

The DriveAFM is ready for research that goes beyond conventional imaging. FluidFM®, Cytomass and ANA expand the capabilities of the DriveAFM with multifunctional hollow cantilevers, cell mass measurements and nanomechanical measurement automation.

Applications

Downloads

Videos

Contact