Latest News

BudgetSensors® MagneticMulti75-G used in a recent study!Mon Sep 16 2019

Direct evidence for grain boundary passivation in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells through alkali-fluoride post-deposition treatmentsTue Sep 10 2019

Published new post (Direct evidence for grain boundary passivation in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells through alkali-fluoride post-deposition treatments) on NANOSENSORS Blog The properties and performance of polycrystalline materials depend critically on the properties of their grain boundaries.* In the article “Direct evidence for grain boundary passivation in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells through alkali-fluoride post-deposition treatments “ Nicoleta Nicoara, Roby Manaligod, Philip Jackson, Dimitrios Hariskos, Wolfram Witte, Giovanna Sozzi, Roberto Menozzi and Sascha Sadewasser investigate the direct evidence for grain boundary passivation in Cu(in,GA)Se2 solar cells through alkali-fluoride treatment. They present a KPFM study on the electronic GB properties in CIGSe deposited by co-evaporation and compare the effect of KF-, RbF-, and CsF-PDT.* Their results suggest that heavier alkali elements might lead to better passivation by reducing the density of charged defects and increasing the formation of secondary phases at grain boundaries.* The KPFM measurements for the study were carried out with platinum iridium coated NANOSENSORS™ PointProbe® Plus PPP-NCLPt AFM probes.* https://www.nanosensors.com/pointprobe-plus-non-contact-tapping-mode-long-cantilever-ptir5-coating-afm-tip-PPP-NCLPt Please have a look at the NANOSENSORS blog for the full citation and a direct link to the full article. #ElectronicProperties #KelvinProbeForceMicroscopy #PolycrystallineMaterials

Don't miss your chance to stop at NanoAndMore Japan booth in Chiba today!Thu Sep 05 2019

Check out BudgetSensors® AFM Probes at NanoAndMore Japan booth at JASIS 2019Thu Sep 05 2019

Find out what BudgetSensors® AFM probe would fit best to your application in Atomic Force Microscopy at NanoAndMore Japan booth 6A-402 in exhibition hall 6 at JASIS 2019 this week.

Visit us at JASIS 2019 this week – NANOSENSORS™Wed Sep 04 2019

Visit NANOSENSORS™ at JASIS 2019 this week! Don’t forget to visit us @NanoAndMore Japan booth 6A-402 in hall 6 at #JASIS2019 this week and let them explain with their fancy new #AFMtip models which #AFMprobe among the many options we offer is best for your #AtomicForceMicroscopy and #ScanningProbeMicroscopy application. We are looking forward to seeing you! Many different AFM tip models at the NanoAndMore Japan booth at JASIS 2019 this week #JASIS2019 #AtomicForceMicroscopy #原子間力顕微鏡

Real-Time Observation of Fibrous Zeolites Reactivity in Contact with Simulated Lung Fluids (SLFs) Obtained by Atomic Force Microscope (AFM)Wed Sep 04 2019

New post - Real-Time Observation of Fibrous Zeolites Reactivity in Contact with Simulated Lung Fluids (SLFs) Obtained by Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) has been published on NanoWorld Blog.

https://www.nanoworld.com/blog/

Inhalation of fibrous erionite particles has been linked to malignant mesothelioma. Accordingly, erionite is considered the most carcinogenic mineral. The reactivity and the nature of erionite biotoxicity has been the subject of intensive research. Despite very close chemical and structural relationships between erionite and offretite, the reactivity of offretite in lung fluids remains unknown.* In their paper “Real-Time Observation of Fibrous Zeolites Reactivity in Contact with Simulated Lung Fluids (SLFs) Obtained by Atomic Force Microscope (AFM)”, Matteo Giordani, Georgia Cametti, Fulvio Di Lorenzo and Sergey V. Churakov investigate the interaction of erionite and offretite surfaces with simulated lung fluids by means of in situ atomic force microscope (AFM).* The outcomes presented in the paper mentioned above represent an important step in understanding the complex processes occurring at the surfaces of mineral fibres that could be involved in the toxicological pathway.* The topography scans were performed in tapping mode with a NanoWorld Arrow-UHFAuD https://www.nanoworld.com/ultra-high-frequency-afm-tip-arrow-uhf-aud AFM probes under different experimental conditions. To better discriminate the role of the tip from the actual fluid-surface interaction, additional measurements were performed in air and in water in contact mode using an Al-coated NanoWorld Arrow-CONTR https://www.nanoworld.com/contact-mode-reflex-coated-afm-tip-arrow-contr AFM cantilever. Please have a look at the NanoWorld blog for the full citation and a direct link to the full paper. #offretite #biotoxicity #SurfaceInteraction #AtomicForceMicroscopy

We’re at JASIS 2019 – you too?Wed Sep 04 2019

We’re at JASIS 2019 – you too?

https://www.nanoworld.com/blog/were-at-jasis-2019-you-too/

You’re welcome to visit us @NanoAndMore Japan https://www.nanoandmore.jp/ booth 6A-402 at #JASIS2019 from September 4-6th, 2019 at Makuhari Messe, Japan to learn more about NanoWorld high quality #AFM probes for #AtomicForceMicroscopy and #ScanningProbeMicroscopy #AFMプローブ #原子間力顕微鏡

Come and visit NanoAndMore Japan at JASIS2019Tue Sep 03 2019

NanoAndMore ジャパン がJASIS 2019に出展Tue Sep 03 2019

A tension-adhesion feedback loop in plant epidermis – NANOSENSORS™ BlogSun Sep 01 2019

Published new post (A tension-adhesion feedback loop in plant epidermis) on NANOSENSORS™ Blog Mechanical forces have emerged as coordinating signals for most cell functions. Yet, because forces are invisible, mapping tensile stress patterns in tissues remains a major challenge in all kingdoms.* In their research paper “A tension-adhesion feedback loop in plant epidermis” Stéphane Verger, Yuchen Long, Arezki Boudaoud and Olivier Hamant take advantage of the adhesion defects in the Arabidopsis mutant quasimodo1 (qua1) to deduce stress patterns in tissues.* Using suboptimal water potential conditions, the authors revealed the relative contributions of shape- and growth-derived stress in prescribing maximal tension directions in aerial tissues. Consistently, the tension patterns deduced from the gaping patterns in qua1 matched the pattern of cortical microtubules, which are thought to align with maximal tension, in wild-type organs. Conversely, loss of epidermis continuity in the qua1mutant hampered supracellular microtubule alignments, revealing that coordination through tensile stress requires cell-cell adhesion.* Based on the results achieved with plants presented in this research paper, the analysis of basement membrane continuity, and its disruption, may very well help understand how consistent supracellular epidermal patterns relate to mechanical stress, in parallel to the well-established role of cadherin and stress in cell-cell adhesion and epidermal functions.* NANOSENSORS™ special development Sphere AFM probes ( SD-Sphere-NCH-S ) with 400 nm tip radius and 42 N/m spring constant were used. https://www.nanosensors.com/pdf/SpecialDevelopmentsList.pdf Please have a look at the NANOSENSORS blog for the full citation and a direct link to the ful article. https://www.nanosensors.com/pdf/SpecialDevelopmentsList.pdf Please have a look at the NANOSENOSRS blog for the full citation and a direct link to the full article. #CellStiffness #microtubules #AtomicForceMicroscopy #nanoindentation

Launching of hyperbolic phonon-polaritons in h-BN slabs by resonant metal plasmonic antennasWed Aug 28 2019

New post - Launching of hyperbolic phonon-polaritons in h-BN slabs by resonant metal plasmonic antennas has been published on NanoWorld Blog.

https://www.nanoworld.com/blog/

Launching and manipulation of polaritons in van der Waals materials offers novel opportunities for applications such as field-enhanced molecular spectroscopy and photodetection.* Particularly, the highly confined hyperbolic phonon polaritons (HPhPs) in h-BN slabs attract growing interest for their capability of guiding light at the nanoscale. An efficient coupling between free space photons and HPhPs is, however, hampered by their large momentum mismatch.* In the article “Launching of hyperbolic phonon-polaritons in h-BN slabs by resonant metal plasmonic antennas” P. Pons-Valencia, F. J. Alfaro-Mozaz, M. M. Wiecha, V. Biolek, I. Dolado, S. Vélez,P. Li, P. Alonso-González, F. Casanova, L. E. Hueso, L. Martín-Moreno, R. Hillenbrand and A. Y. Nikitin show that resonant metallic antennas can efficiently launch HPhPs in thin h-BN slabs. Despite the strong hybridization of HPhPs in the h-BN slab and Fabry-Pérot plasmonic resonances in the metal antenna, the efficiency of launching propagating HPhPs in h-BN by resonant antennas exceeds significantly that of the non-resonant ones. Their results provide fundamental insights into the launching of HPhPs in thin polar slabs by resonant plasmonic antennas, which will be crucial for phonon-polariton based nanophotonic devices.* A commercial s-SNOM setup in which the oscillating (at a frequency Ω≅270kHz) metal-coated (Pt/Ir) AFM tip (NanoWorld ARROW-NCPt) was illuminated by p-polarized mid-IR radiation, was used.* https://www.nanoworld.com/tapping-mode-platinum-coated-afm-tip-arrow-ncpt Please have a look the NanoWorld blog for the full citation and a direct link to the full paper.

Conductive-probe atomic force microscopy and Kelvin-probe force microscopy characterization of OH-terminated diamond (111) surfaces with step-terrace structuresSun Aug 18 2019

Published new post (Conductive-probe atomic force microscopy and Kelvin-probe force microscopy characterization of OH-terminated diamond (111) surfaces with step-terrace structures) on NANOSENSORS Blog Diamond has a high breakdown field, high carrier mobilities and the highest thermal conductivity. That is why diamond is a promising material for next generation high-power devices such as field effect transistors.* In their paper “Conductive-probe atomic force microscopy and Kelvin-probe force microscopy characterization of OH-terminated diamond (111) surfaces with step-terrace structures”, Masatsugu Nagai, Ryo Yoshida, Tatsuki Yamada, Taira Tabakoya, Christoph E. Nebel, Satoshi Yamasaki, Toshiharu Makino, Tsubasa Matsumoto, Takao Inokuma and Norio Tokuda report about a detailed characterization of OH-terminated diamond (111) surfaces with step-terrace (ST) and bunching-step (BS) regions. In order to obtain the OH-terminated diamond (111) surfaces, they combined three techniques: anisotropic diamond etching by thermochemical reaction between Ni and diamond in high-temperature water vapor, hydrogen plasma treatment24) and water vapor annealing. For characterization of the topography as well as electronic surface properties, atomic force microscopy (AFM), Kelvin-probe force microscopy (KPFM) and conductive-prove AFM (CPAFM) were applied.* They found that the contact potential difference (CPD) and current were highly correlated with the surface topography and concluded that the interface states were generated around steps on the OH-terminated diamond (111) surfaces.* The results presented in this paper indicate that atomically flat diamond surfaces with minimal step densities are required to form ideal MOS structures with minimized interface state densities.* The CPD maps of the OH-terminated diamond (111) surfaces were obtained by the KPFM measurements, using NANOSENSORS™ Platinum Silicide ( PtSi ) AFM probes. * https://www.nanosensors.com/uploads/media/files/0001/05/46425f364ed11a0a90b5c6db11118a319a4b4705.pdf Please have a look at the NANOSENORS blog for the full citation and a direct link to the full article. #KPFM #AtomicForceMicroscopy #ScanningProbeMicroscopy

ChinaNano 2019 Beijing August 17-19, Booth 218Sat Aug 17 2019

New post - ChinaNano 2019 Beijing August 17-19, Booth 218 (https://www.nanoworld.com/blog/chinanano-2019-beijing-august-17-19-booth-218/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Blog&utm_content=ChinaNano+2019+Beijing+August+17-19%2C+Booth+218&utm_campaign=NanoWorld+Blog) has been published on NanoWorld Blog. To all members of the #AFMcommunity who have also travelled to Beijing to participate in the ChinaNano 2019 conference this week: Welcome at our booth 218 at the ChinaNano 2019! We hope you have some time left to drop in and let us know about the progress of your research. Looking forward to meeting you at the ChinaNano 2019 #nanoscience #materialsresearch #AtomicForceMicroscopy

Meet NANOSENSORS at booth 218 at ChinaNano 2019 Beijing August 17 – 19, 2019Sat Aug 17 2019

Published new post (Meet NANOSENSORS at booth 218 at ChinaNano 2019 Beijing August 17 – 19, 2019) on NANOSENSORS Blog We are at booth 218 at the ChinaNano 2019, the 8th International Conference on Nanoscience and Technology at the Beijing International Convention Center (BICC). We are looking forward to seeing you there! Learn all about NANOSENSORS AFM probes at the ChinaNano 2019 #nanotechnology #nanomaterials #AFMcommunity

Meet NANOSENSORS at booth 218 at ChinaNano 2019 Beijing August 17...Sat Aug 17 2019

We are at booth 218 at the ChinaNano 2019, the 8th International Conference on Nanoscience and Technology at the Beijing International Convention Center (BICC). We are looking forward to seeing you there! Learn all about NANOSENSORS AFM probes at the... #AFMcantilever
#AFMProbes #AFMprobes

NANOSENSORS proudly sponsors Asia-Pacific PFM 2019 workshopMon Aug 12 2019

Published new post (NANOSENSORS proudly sponsors Asia-Pacific PFM 2019 workshop) on NANOSENSORS Blog NANOSENSORS™ is a proud sponsor of the 2019 Asia-Pacific Workshop on Piezoresponse Force Microscopy ( PFM) and Nanoscale Electromechanics of Functional Materials and Electrochemical Systems (Asia-Pacific PFM 2019), which will be held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, from August 11 to 14, 2019. We wish all those members of the #AFMcommunity who are participating this week a successful workshop. In the NANOSENSORS blog you will regularly find references to articles mentioning the use of our AFM probes for Piezoresponse Force Microscopy. You’re welcome to have a look at: https://www.nanosensors.com/blog/tag/pfm/ #PiezoresponseForceMicroscopy #nanoscale #materials

Effect of Staple Age on DNA Origami Nanostructure Assembly and StabilityMon Aug 12 2019

Effect of Staple Age on DNA Origami Nanostructure Assembly and Stability (https://www.nanoworld.com/blog/effect-of-staple-age-on-dna-origami-nanostructure-assembly-and-stability/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Blog&utm_content=Effect+of+Staple+Age+on+DNA+Origami+Nanostructure+Assembly+and+Stability&utm_campaign=NanoWorld+Blog) has been published on NanoWorld Blog. DNA origami nanostructures are widely employed in various areas of fundamental and applied research. Due to the tremendous success of the DNA origami technique in the academic field, considerable efforts currently aim at the translation of this technology from a laboratory setting to real-world applications, such as nanoelectronics, drug delivery, and biosensing. While many of these real-world applications rely on an intact DNA origami shape, they often also subject the DNA origami nanostructures to rather harsh and potentially damaging environmental and processing conditions.* In their article “Effect of Staple Age on DNA Origami Nanostructure Assembly and Stability” Charlotte Kielar, Yang Xin, Xiaodan Xu, Siqi Zhu, Nelli Gorin , Guido Grundmeier, Christin Möser, David M. Smith and Adrian Keller investigate the effect of long-term storage of the employed staple strands on DNA origami assembly and stability.* Atomic force microscopy (AFM) under liquid and dry conditions was employed to characterize the structural integrity of Rothemund triangles assembled from different staple sets that have been stored at −20 °C for up to 43 months.* NanoWorld Ultra-Short Cantilevers USC-F0.3-k0.3 were the AFM probes that were used for the AFM measurements under liquid conditions.* https://www.nanoworld.com/Ultra-Short-Cantilevers-USC-F0.3-k0.3.html Please have a look at the NanoWorld blog for the full citation and a direct link to the full article. #DNA #nanotechnology #AtomicForceMicroscopy

Nucleation in confinement generates long-range repulsion between rough calcite surfacesMon Aug 05 2019

Nucleation in confinement generates long-range repulsion between rough calcite surfaces on NANOSENSORS™ Blog Fluid-induced alteration of rocks and mineral-based materials often starts at confined mineral interfaces where nm-thick water films can persist even at high overburden pressures and at low vapor pressures. These films enable transport of reactants and affect forces acting between mineral surfaces. However, the feedback between the surface forces and reactivity of confined solids is not fully understood.* In “Nucleation in confinement generates long-range repulsion between rough calcite surfaces» Joanna Dziadkowiec, Bahareh Zareeipolgardani, Dag Kristian Dysthe and Anja Røyne describe how they used the surface forces apparatus (SFA) to follow surface reactivity in confinement and measure nm-range forces between two rough calcite surfaces in NaCl, CaCl2, or MgCl2 solutions with ionic strength of 0.01, 0.1 or 1 M.* Roughness evolution with time of single, unconfined calcite films in salt solutions was analyzed by Atomic Force Microscopy using NANOSENSORS™ uniqprobe qp-SCONT AFM probes to image the surfaces in contact mode.* https://www.nanosensors.com/uniqprobe-uniform-quality-spm-probe-soft-contact-mode-qp-scont Please have a look at the NANOSENSORS™ blog for the full citation and a direct link to the full article. #AtomicForceMicroscopy #ChemicalPhysics #RoughnessCharacterization

The Skeptics' Guide to the UniverseFri Aug 02 2019

Friction is everywhere — from a violinist bowing a string to children skidding down a slide. In the right situation, the ubiquitous force can have big effects: Interleave the pages of two phone books, and the friction between the pages will hold the books together so tightly that they become strong enough to suspend a car above the ground.

Happy Birthday SwitzerlandThu Aug 01 2019

Happy Birthday Switzerland (https://www.nanoworld.com/blog/happy-birthday-switzerland/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Blog&utm_content=Happy+Birthday+Switzerland&utm_campaign=NanoWorld+Blog) has been published on NanoWorld Blog. It's the Swiss National Holiday today. Have fun everyone!