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• Publications about Thermal Microscopy
  In the last months, some articles about Thermal Microscopy are published, which you can find under SEM AFM Applications.

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• The new controller C32 is available
  The C32 controller offers many new possibilities for AFM measurements.
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All scanners of the DS 95 series are probe scanners, i.e. during scanning, the cantilever is moved from side to side over the sample and thus provides examination of any samples. The laser unit is moved with the scanner during scanning, i.e. the laser point will not move on the back of the cantilever during scanning. Thus disturbances in the reflection layer on the cantilever do not influence the AFM image.

The scanners of the DS 95 series are available in a number of different variants:
The DS 95-50 scanner has a standard scan range of 50 µm x 50 µm x 5 µm. It can also be delivered with a larger Z scan range of 15 µm.
The DS 95-200 scanner has a standard scan range of 200 µm x 200 µm x 15 µm. Irrespective of the scan range, all scanners have atomic resolution in the Z direction.

The AFM scanners work in all common SPM modes, which are described more precisely in the overview of SPM modes. Furthermore, all DS 95 E-scanners offer electrical modi:

• Possibility of connecting an external instrument for electrical measurements such as e.g. Kelvin Probe Force or resistance / capacitance measurements) and recording the data e.g. through the external input of the controller.
• Operation in STM mode
• Integrated tunnel current amplifier for measurement of small currents (max. 10 nA, 16 Bit resolution = 0,3 pA) for STM or conductive AFM measurements
• Bias voltage generator for STM operation or lithography

All scanners have a built-in linearization sensor in order to eliminate the influence of hysteresis in the Z piezo. Thereby, large differences in the height of the sample surface will be measured correctly, even if the scanner has only been calibrated with small differences in height, and vice versa.
To allow measurements also in liquids, the scanner is equipped with a rubber membrane at the bottom, protecting the electronics from moisture entering the housing. So these scanners can also work in liquids such as water or alcohol.

The built-in optics in the DS 95 Scanner is similar to that of a 95 mm microscope objective. The focal plane is independent of the cantilever position and lies app. 1 mm below the scanner front. Thus it is especially easy to find a certain position on the sample surface.

A special feature of the DS 95 series is the automatic cantilever and laser adjustment. With the aid of the tools delivered with the scanner, a cantilever change can be made in less than a minute - also by a beginner. To make possible this easy cantilever change, we deliver the cantilevers pre-mounted on a holder which can be inserted into the scanner by means of a dedicated tool where it is held in place magnetically.

If special cantilevers are needed, we also mount customer specified cantilevers. As an alternative, the customer can mount their own cantilevers by means of our easy to use cantilever mounting tool. In principle, this is a 5 axis manipulator with laser and detector unit. A data sheet of the cantilever mounting tool is available.

In very few special cases, e.g. for MFM measurements, the magnetic cantilever holding may disturb the measurements. For such cases, we can deliver our scanner modified with a mechanical cantilever holding mechanism.

Depending on the sample size we offer various scanner platforms which will provide the right stability for this kind of system and include a CCD camera for controlling the scanning. We offer a variety of different stages. Our scanning probe microscopes use our fully digital controller and our scan software DME ScanTool™.

Upon request, we can modify the scanners for sample scanning, i.e. with a scanning sample table, when this is needed for e.g. other scan planes or a special X-Y-positioning.