We demonstrate coaxial atomic force microscope (AFM) tweezers that can trap and place small objects using dielectrophoresis (DEP). An attractive force is generated at the tip of a coaxial AFM probe by applying a radio frequency voltage between the center conductor and a grounded shield; the origin of the force is found to be DEP by measuring the pull-off force vs. applied voltage. We show that the coaxial AFM tweezers (CAT) can perform three dimensional assembly by picking up a specified silica microsphere, imaging with the microsphere at the end of the tip, and placing it at a target destination.
@article{arxiv.1001.5262,
title = {Coaxial Atomic Force Microscope Tweezers},
author = {K. A. Brown and J. A. Aguilar and R. M. Westervelt},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1001.5262},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
9 pages, 3 figures, in review at Applied Physics Letters