Sensors 2015, 15(1), 1601-1610; doi:10.3390/s150101601
Improving the Lateral Resolution of Quartz Tuning Fork-Based Sensors in Liquid by Integrating Commercial AFM Tips into the Fiber End
Laura Gonzalez 1, David Martínez-Martín 2,†, Jorge Otero 1, Pedro José de Pablo 2, Manel Puig-Vidal 1,*
and Julio Gómez-Herrero 2
and Julio Gómez-Herrero 21
SIC-BIO, Bioelectronics and Nanobioengineering Group, Departament d'Electrònica, Universitat de Barcelona, Marti i Franques 1, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
2
Departamento de Física de la Materia Condensada, C-3, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain
†
Current Address: ETH Zurich, Biosystems Science and Engineering, CH-4057 Basel, Switzerland
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 3 November 2014 / Accepted: 5 January 2015 / Published: 14 January 2015
(This article belongs to the Section Physical Sensors)
Abstract
The use of quartz tuning fork sensors as probes for scanning probe microscopy is growing in popularity. Working in shear mode, some methods achieve a lateral resolution comparable with that obtained with standard cantilevered probes, but only in experiments conducted in air or vacuum. Here, we report a method to produce and use commercial AFM tips in electrically driven quartz tuning fork sensors operating in shear mode in a liquid environment. The process is based on attaching a standard AFM tip to the end of a fiber probe which has previously been sharpened. Only the end of the probe is immersed in the buffer solution during imaging. The lateral resolution achieved is about 6 times higher than that of the etched microfiber on its own. View Full-TextKeywords:
atomic force microscopy; scanning probe microscopy; quartz tuning fork; self-sensing probe; shear force microscopy; nanotip
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).
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MDPI and ACS Style
Gonzalez, L.; Martínez-Martín, D.; Otero, J.; de Pablo, P.J.; Puig-Vidal, M.; Gómez-Herrero, J. Improving the Lateral Resolution of Quartz Tuning Fork-Based Sensors in Liquid by Integrating Commercial AFM Tips into the Fiber End. Sensors 2015, 15, 1601-1610.