BioLever fast
Simple but strong desire of a biologist had moved us to make this ultra small cantilever for observing dynamic behavior of bio molecular samples in liquid. Bio sample is active in liquid, where cantilevers receive large damping force so that they vibrate slower rather than in air. Our challenge in the cantilever fabrication was maintaining resonance of the soft cantilever high even in liquid. The answer was ‘making it smaller’.
Outstanding features of BioLever fast
1. Ultra small cantilever for fast scanning in liquid
2. With an integrated probe
More about BioLever fast
1. Fast scanning in liquid
The ultra small cantilever sized in 9 x 2 µm shows high resonance at around 1.5 MHz in air and higher than 300 kHz in water while its spring constant remain small around 0.1 N/m.
The resonance in water is 10 times higher than that of ‘BioLever mini’, or BL-AC40TS-C2 , so that it contributes to achieve imaging rate of 1 frame per second or faster for 100 x 100 pixcels.
Its spring constant is small in the same range as ‘BioLever mini’, so that it allows the probe gently touch to the bio sample surface during the scanning.
note
In use of the ultra small cantilever, laser spot size of the optical deflection sensors should be less than 5 µm in diam., ideally less than 2 µm, in order to gain sufficient high signal intensity.
2. Integrated probe
A corner of the triangular protrusion at the end of the bird-beak-like cantilever behaves as a probe tip. The triangular tip is a plate-like, 0.8 µm in length and its apex is 24 nm in radius, typically.
In taking AFM movies for observing dynamic behavior of bio samples like DNA strands, tips with relatively large tip-apex often result less scratched lines in the images.
note
For higher resolution imaging, EBD tip is to be used as an alternative.
A small fibril grows in SEM by irradiating electron beam at one point near the apex of the triangular protrusion.
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