HarmoniX helps capture images and material maps simultaneously. (Image: Veeco)

June 3, 2008 — Veeco Instruments Inc., a provider of instrumentation to the nanoscience community, has launched HarmoniX, a powerful new atomic force microscope (AFM) technique for high-resolution nanoscale imaging and analysis. HarmoniX Nanoscale Material Property Mapping enables AFM users to simultaneously, and in real-time, acquire high-resolution images as well as high-resolution, quantitative material property maps. The HarmoniX mode is now available on all Veeco scanning probe microscopes that are powered by the new NanoScope V controller, including the MultiMode V, Dimension V, and BioScope II.

HarmoniX acquires real-time force curves by measuring the cantilever’s torsional and flexural motion each time the AFM tip interacts with the surface in TappingMode. Proprietary algorithms instantly calculate the force curves that occur when the tip taps the surface, and analyze them to obtain multiple sample characteristics. These material properties are then rendered in image maps that correlate to the sample topography image. These maps are quantitative and directly traceable to the Elastic Modulus of the sample being imaged.

“HarmoniX provides an AFM user the ability to simultaneously capture quantitative maps of material properties, such as elasticity, adhesion, dissipation and peak force,” says Dr. Bede Pittenger, Veeco development scientist. “The HarmoniX technique renders these maps at speeds that are orders of magnitude greater than currently-available force techniques, with the same level of high resolution our customers are accustomed to with Veeco’s TappingMode.”

The Veeco product scientists and engineering team collaborated with Dr. Ozgur Sahin, of the Rowland Institute at Harvard, to develop and bring to market the new, patented technique.