SPM User Meeting in Mainz

July 21, 2017 by Romain Stomp

It was an honor and privilege to host our first SPM User Meeting in Mainz this year in the group of Prof. Angelika Kuehnle. This two-day gathering was a time for intense knowledge sharing among Zurich Instruments' users with invited talks, tutorials in smaller groups and a poster session.

Invited Talks

A range of invited talks described the state-of-the art in various SPM fields such as AM- and FM-KPFM, time-resolved experiments, sub-molecular resolution imaging and multifrequency AFM, as well as offering a side-by-side comparison between AM- and FM-AFM. It was also an opportunity for ScientaOmicron to describe in more detail the integration of the MFLI and its PLL into their new Matrix SPM Controller. Here are some pictures from the invited talks; the references are provided at the end of this blog post.

pump-probe KPFM

A mind-opening talk from Lukas Eng [2-3] on skyrmions and time-resolved KPFM.

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Daniel Ebeling's talk [4-5] on sub-molecular imaging with higher eigenmodes.

Lab Demo

There were definitely many highlights during this event but the step-by-step demonstration of AM- versus FM-AFM data analysis from Hagen Soengen, followed by a real lab demonstration of quantitative 3D AFM imaging in liquid [1], definitely made a lasting impression on the audience. Below are some images from the presentation and pictures taken during the demo session.

AMFM.png

Averaged Force, Stiffness and Damping in AM and FM-AFM modes. Vertical slice from a 3D map. Courtesy of Hagen Soengen.

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3D-AFM imaging in Kuehnle's lab.

Tutorials

Three parallel tutorial sessions were also offered, featuring different Zurich Instruments products applied to SPM:

  1. The MFLI featuring PLL and PID loops for AFM, Threshold Units, as well as a brief API introduction.
  2. The HF2PLL together with an Omicron VT-AFM (manned by Ralf Bechstein) to illustrate the KPFM mode as well as the native LabOne imaging mode (see screenshot below).
  3. The UHFLI with an AWG tutorial featuring band excitation with chirp and digitizer, as well as several time-resolved techniques.
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Tutorial showing the LabOne imaging mode (from SW trigger Grid mode) with a real microscope.

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Our colleague Daniel Wright's personal approach to the MFLI for SPM.

The atmosphere and success of this first event in Germany led spontaneously to a call for a second one in April 2018. Thanks to the generous cooperation of Lukas Eng, it is planned to take place in Dresden and will therefore be accessible to our Czech and Polish customers too.

 

Acknowledgements: Special thanks to our local host Angelika Kuehnle, and in particular to Hagen Soengen as well as Steffi Klassen, Stefanie Wild and Nuri Blachnik for their great organizational help and coordination. We are also very grateful to our great invited speakers and contributors: Ralf Bechstein, Daniel Ebeling, Lukas Eng, Thilo Glatzel, Martin Rohmer and Stefan Weber. At Zurich Instruments, it was great to be working with teammates Paolo Navaretti, Daniel Wright and Eva Rojcek on this event.

References

[1] H. Söngen, R. Bechstein, A. Kühnle, Quantitative atomic force microscopy, J. Phys. Condens. Matter 29 (2017) 274001.
[2] S. Kehr et al. ACS Photonics, 2016, 3 (2016), pp 20–26.
[3] J. Murawski et al. J. Appl. Phys. 118, 244502 (2015).
[4] D. Ebeling et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 110, 183102 (2017).
[5] D. Ebeling et al. ACS Nano 7, 10387 (2013).
[6] G. Günzburger, PhD Thesis, Universität Basel 2016: [link].
[7] V. Bergmann et al., Local Time-Dependent Charging in a Perovskite Solar Cell, ACS Appl. Mat. Interfaces, 8(30), 19402 (2016).