Etalon Premium: pencil-shape tips for HQ AFM topography scans
10.09.2018
We're glad to present the new product line in our assortment: Etalon Premium probes with pencil-shape tips for high-quality AFM scanning!
Etalon Premium tips have got conical apex and cylindrical body to minimize tip-related widening of objects investigated. Excellent geometry provides high resolution of AFM scans:
- Conical apex of 5-8 nm typical curvature radius and cone angle < 30° suits well for imaging of small objects and nanoparticles;
- Narrow cylindrical body with diameter of 300 - 700 nm and height 8 mkm allow getting detailed images of high objects, making Etalon Premium probes being similar to high aspect ratio probes models.
In our experience (and by reports of our customers), these probes show better scanning data for almost all types of surfaces. They are especially effective for high objects of 1 um and higher.
To check performance of Etalon Premium probes in application to high objects we scanned with AFM hemi-spherical particles of 2,5 um diameter.
Below you may find comparison of topography scans of these objects, obtained with Etalon Premium (the left one) and standard pyramidal (the right one) probes. Scan area: 12x12 um. Ridge of tip’s pyramid gives the same artifact in the bottom of each sphere on the right scan. As Etalon Premium probe is narrower, no artifacts are seen when it draws a surface on the left scan.
At the moment Etalon Premium probes presented only with HA_NC-based lever parameters. But in the first half of 2019 we plan to expand this product line by HA_C, HA_CNC, HA_FM and HA_HR Premium models. Condutive Etalon Premium cantilevers will be also designed soon.
More detailed technical data can be found on Etalon Premium product page. We hope that our new products will suit well for your investigations!
