Shimadzu Corporation announces the release of its flagship SPM-8100FM scanning probe microscope, featuring five times faster data acquisition, four times wider scan in both X and Y-axis directions, and ultra-high resolution performance that is as high in both air and liquids as in a vacuum.
A scanning probe microscope (SPM) is a microscope that scans the surface of a sample using a cantilever fitted with a fine probe -with a tip radius of just a few nanometers- to measure the surface topology and physical properties of the sample. There are different types of SPM, and the SPM-8100FM is classified as an atomic force microscope (AFM), which is able to observe or measure the three-dimensional structure of sample surfaces at the nanometer level by detecting the forces acting between atoms when the probe is positioned near the sample surface. In order to detect such tiny atomic forces, the instrument adopts an extremely low noise and highly sensitive frequency modulation (FM) method that enables ultra-high resolution to be achieved.
In addition to high resolution observation of metals, semiconductors, organic polymer materials, biological materials, and so on, the microscope can also be used to observe the local structure at the solid-liquid interface. It is therefore expected to contribute to advanced basic research in a wide variety of research fields, including polymers, catalysts, batteries, tribology, and life sciences.