The initial investment in and the subsequent time and money spent on the AFM largely goes to waste absent a solid understanding of the instrument‘s capabilities and limitations.
Chances are very good that the AFM you are using can deliver much more useful information, more efficiently, and more routinely than you are accustomed to.
I invite you to seriously explore what more you can do with your existing AFM, before you spend another dollar on the next upgrade or ad-on. No matter how long you’ve owned it, how old or new it is, what hardware and software it has, how much expertise its users have, … , your AFM is likely underutilized. I know this from a unique first-hand experience:
I have worked with AFMs and STMs since 1991. Nearly 11 years of that time, I was employed at Digital Instruments and Veeco, mainly as Applications Scientist and later Senior Applications Scientist. In the last 15 years, I have spent thousands of hours on NanoScope MultiModes, Dimension Series, EnviroScopes, BioScopes, STMs, Electrochemical SPMs, CP and CP-II’s, running samples in air, in liquids, in vacuum, at room temperature and elevated temperatures. I have trained on these instruments hundreds of users with very diverse applications needs, and I have installed and de-installed various configurations of the systems at least a hundred times.
Learning how to make really good use of an AFM or STM is best done with an experienced professional who understands the science, the technology, and the applications. Training SPM users and educating people in general about SPMs is a truly rewarding and satisfying job, but not everyone who is tasked with doing this job shares this sentiment, even in the rare instances where the in-depth experience is there.
Is your AFM underutilized?
Is it sitting idle in the lab several work hours a day? Are users having difficulty making it work well? Many AFM users understand the importance of calibrations, noise performance, and artifacts in AFM data. But there is much to learn about properly interpreting the data and to extracting useful, reliable information out of it. Most often, a user becomes comfortable with a few features and options and never explores the rest …
Does your AFM routinely provide insight for the work at hand? Even peer-reviewed journals are publishing AFM images that say little beyond the fact that somewhere there is an instrument.
If you want to learn how to get more out of your existing AFM, I am ready to put into work for you 15 years of in-depth experience and a genuine desire to help. Just give me a call or send an email to discuss it together.
F. Michael Serry
Independent Physicist
Scanning Probe Microscopy
Phone: +1.805.884.1049
Email: serry@michaelserry.com