Veeco Releases Two New Breakthrough AFM Scan Modes

Veeco Instruments Inc. announces the introduction of two patent-pending AFM scan modes, ScanAsyst™ and PeakForce™ QNM™. Together, these proprietary advances provide unique, new capabilities for AFM quantitative analysis and ease of use on Veeco’s Dimension® Icon®, BioScope™ Catalyst™, and the newly announced MultiMode® 8 Scanning Probe Microscopes.

“Our new ScanAsyst and PeakForce QNM Quantitative NanoMechanical Property Mapping modes make nanoscale AFM imaging and analysis faster, easier, and more quantitative,” commented David Rossi, Vice President and General Manager of Veeco’s AFM Business. “Making AFMs easier and quantitative opens new inroads to important research in materials, energy, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, and other arenas where nanoscale interactions and processes are key to breakthrough discoveries, but where researchers were limited by the capabilities of yesterday’s AFM technology.”

• ScanAsyst is the world’s first AFM image-optimization scan mode, providing new levels of ease of use in acquiring reliable, high-quality nanoscale data. Using intelligent algorithms that continuously monitor image quality and make appropriate parameter adjustments, this revolutionary, patent-pending scan mode delivers faster, more consistent results, automatically, and regardless of operator skill level. ScanAsyst dramatically improves image setup with automatic optimization of parameters and ideally suits a broad range of material and life science applications, with operation in both air and fluid.

• PeakForce QNM is an entirely new, Veeco-developed operating mode that uses patent-pending Peak Force Tapping™ technology to record very fast force response curves at every single pixel in the image. This imaging mode enables unprecedented quantitative nanomechanical property mapping of both modulus and adhesion on a wide variety of materials, while simultaneously imaging sample topography at high resolution. In addition to more accurate and repeatable results, the mode’s direct, ultra-low-force control of the probe tip during scanning helps protect delicate tips and samples, yielding longer probe lifetimes, fewer probe exchanges, and improved sample integrity and measurement consistency.