The screencast on Ultra-Short Cantilevers (USC) for High Speed AFM (HS-AFM) and video rate Atomic Force Microscopy held by Mathieu Burri has just reached the 1000 views mark. Congratulations Mathieu!
The Ultra-Short Cantilevers series combines very small cantilevers capable of resonating in the MHz regime and a very sharp and wear resistant tip and is dedicated to High-Speed AFM (HS-AFM). The Ultra-Short Cantilevers series consists of six different types of probes which cover the complete range of high speed scanning applications, from non-contact mode to contact mode, from measurements in air to measurements in liquid.
More information such as high speed videos, an image gallery and a regularly updated reference list of scientific articles on high speed AFM can be found on the dedicated website: https://www.highspeedscanning.com/ . You can also find references to scientific articles mentioning the use of NanoWorld USC AFM probes on the NanoWorld blog.
If you haven’t seen the USC screencast yet have a look at:
NanoWorld ULTRA-SHORT CANTILEVERS for High-Speed AFM
A Chinese Version of this screencast is also available:
In the article «Influence of Ultraviolet Radiation Exposure Time on Styrene-Ethylene-Butadiene-Styrene (SEBS) Copolymer» Daniel Garcia-Garcia , José Enrique Crespo-Amorós, Francisco Parres and María Dolores Samper describe how they studied the effect of ultraviolet radiation on styrene-ethylene-butadiene-styrene (SEBS) at different exposure times in order to obtain a better understanding of the mechanism of ageing.*
The results obtained for the SEBS, in relation to the duration of exposure, showed superficial changes that cause a decrease in the surface energy (s) and, therefore, a decrease in surface roughness. This led to a reduction in mechanical performance, decreasing the tensile strength by about 50% for exposure times of around 200 hours.*
NanoWorld Pointprobe®NCH AFM probes were used in the Atomic force microscopy (AFM) applied to determine the surface topography and roughness of the aged samples.
Figure 4 from «Influence of Ultraviolet Radiation Exposure Time on Styrene-Ethylene-Butadiene-Styrene (SEBS) Copolymer» by Daniel Garcia-Garcia et al.: Atomic force microscopy (AFM) surface of SEBS: (a) without exposure (T0), (b) UV exposure T2, (c) UV exposure T7 and (d) UV exposure T9.
*Daniel Garcia-Garcia , José Enrique Crespo-Amorós, Francisco Parres and María Dolores Samper Influence of Ultraviolet Radiation Exposure Time on Styrene-Ethylene-Butadiene-Styrene (SEBS) Copolymer Polymers 2020, 12, 862 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12040862
Open Access : The article “Influence of Ultraviolet Radiation Exposure Time on Styrene-Ethylene-Butadiene-Styrene (SEBS) Copolymer» byDaniel Garcia-Garcia , José Enrique Crespo-Amorós, Francisco Parres and María Dolores Samper is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
In the article “Determination of polarization states in (K,Na)NbO3lead-free piezoelectric crystal” Mao-Hua Zhang, Chengpeng Hu, Zhen Zhou, Hao Tian, Hao-Cheng Thong, Yi Xuan Liu, Xing-Yu Xu, Xiao-Qing Xi, Jing-Feng Li and Ke Wang describe how polarization switching in lead-free (K0.40Na0.60)NbO3 (KNN) single crystals was studied by switching spectroscopy piezoresponse force microscopy (SS-PFM).*
Acquisition of multiple hysteresis loops on a closely spaced square grid enables polarization switching parameters to be mapped in real space. Piezoresponse amplitude and phase hysteresis loops show collective symmetric/asymmetric characteristics, affording information regarding the switching behavior of different domains. As such, the out-of-plane polarization states of the domains, including amplitudes and phases can be determined.*
The results presented by the authors could contribute to a further understanding of the relationships between polarization switching and polarization vectors at the nanoscale, and provide a feasible method to correlate the polarization hysteresis loops in a domain under an electric field with the polarization vector states.*
PFM and SS-PFM were implemented on a commercial Atomic Force Microscope using NanoWorld PlatinumIridium coated Pointprobe®EFM AFM probes.
Fig. 1 from “Determination of polarization states in (K,Na)NbO3lead-free piezoelectric crystal” by Mao-Hua Zhang et al:
*Mao-Hua Zhang, Chengpeng Hu, Zhen Zhou, Hao Tian, Hao-Cheng Thong, Yi Xuan Liu, Xing-Yu Xu, Xiao-Qing Xi, Jing-Feng Li, Ke Wang Determination of polarization states in (K,Na)NbO3lead-free piezoelectric crystal Journal of Advanced Ceramics2020, 9(2): 204–209 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40145-020-0360-2
Open Access The article “Determination of polarization states in (K,Na)NbO3lead-free piezoelectric crystal” Mao-Hua Zhang, Chengpeng Hu, Zhen Zhou, Hao Tian, Hao-Cheng Thong, Yi Xuan Liu, Xing-Yu Xu, Xiao-Qing Xi, Jing-Feng Li and Ke Wang is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
![Fig. 1 from “Determination of polarization states in (K,Na)NbO3lead-free piezoelectric crystal” by Mao-Hua Zhang et al: PFM imaging and a schematic of tip movement during SS-PFM mapping. (a) Piezoresponse amplitude and (b) phase contrast images of the KNN single crystals. (c) In SS-PFM, local hysteresis loops are collected using a waveform at each pointon 25 × 25 mesh. The domain wall shown in Fig. 1(b) orients along [001]c.](https://dhipgo7nn2tea.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/25112255/figure-1-from-Mao-Hua-Zhang-et-al-2020-Determination-of-polarization-states-in-KNaNbO3lead-free-piezoelectric-crystal-NanoWorld-Pointprobe-EFM-AFM-probe-1-1-1024x536.jpg)