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The atomic force microscope is a versatile tool that allows many routes to be used for investigating the mechanical properties of soft materials on the nanometer scale. In the present work, experiments were performed on polystyrene polymer…
Atomic force microscopes have proved to be fundamental research tools in many situations where a gentle imaging process is required, and in a variety of environmental conditions, such as the study of biological samples. Among the possible…
Nanomechanical spectroscopy (NMS) is a recently developed approach to determine optical absorption spectra of nanoscale materials via mechanical measurements. It is based on measuring changes in the resonance frequency of a membrane…
Previous and present "academic" research aiming at atomic scale understanding is mainly concerned with the study of individual molecular processes possibly underlying materials science applications. Appealing properties of an individual…
Recent frequency-modulated atomic force microscopy (FM-AFM) can measure three-dimensional force distribution between a probe and a sample surface in liquid. The force distribution is, in the present circumstances, assumed to be solvation…
The reconfiguration of soft, deformable particles upon adsorption at the interface between two fluids underpins many aspects of their dynamics and interactions, ultimately controlling the macroscopic properties of particle monolayers of…
We demonstrate the measurement of laterally induced optical forces using an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). The lateral electric field distribution between a gold coated AFM probe and a nano-aperture in a gold film is mapped by measuring the…
Measurements with an atomic force microscope (AFM) offer a direct way to probe elastic properties of lipid bilayer membranes locally: provided the underlying stress-strain relation is known, material parameters such as surface tension or…
Electrostatic force microscopy (EFM) can image nanoscale objects buried below the surface. Here, we theoretically show that this capability can be used to obtain nanotomographic information, i.e., the physical dimensions and dielectric…
Stretchable conductors are of crucial relevance for emerging technologies such as wearable electronics, low-invasive bioelectronic implants or soft actuators for robotics. A critical issue for their development regards the understanding of…
Background forces are linear long-range interactions of the cantilever body with its surroundings that must be compensated for in order to reveal tip-surface force, the quantity of interest for determining material properties in atomic…
Surface wettability has a huge influence on its functional properties. For example, to minimize smudging, surfaces should be able to repel oil droplets. To quantify surface wettability, the most common approach is to measure the contact…
A method to measure the viscosity of liquids at microscales is presented. It uses a thin glass fiber fixed on the tip of the cantilever of an extremely low noise Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), which accurately measures the cantilever…
We study the physics of adhesion and the contact mechanics at the nanoscale with a peeling experiment of a carbon nanotube on a flat substrate. Using an interferometric atomic force microscope and an extended force modulation protocol, we…
Atoms or pairs of ions picked up by probe tips used in dynamic force microscopy (DFM) can be strongly displaced and even hop discontinuously upon approach to the sample surface. The energy barriers for some of those hops are of the right…
The mechanical properties of PC12 living cells have been studied at the nanoscale with a Force Feedback Microscope using two experimental approaches. Firstly, the local mechanical impedance of the cell membrane has been mapped…
Near-field microwave microscopy has created the opportunity for a new class of electrodynamics experiments of materials. Freed from the constraints of traditional microwave optics, experiments can be carried out at high spatial resolution…
We introduce a method for analyzing the physical properties of nanoparticles in fluids via the competition between viscous drag and optical forces. By flowing particles through a microfluidic device containing an optical microcavity which…
The discrete and charge-separated nature of matter - electrons and nuclei - results in local electrostatic fields that are ubiquitous in nanoscale structures and are determined by their shape, material, and environment. Such fields are…
Friction is a phenomenon that manifests across all spatial and temporal scales, from the molecular to the macroscopic scale. It describes the dissipation of energy from the motion of particles or abstract reaction coordinates and arises in…