Tiny Tech #56 Sharper Than Ever: Super-Tips for Microscopes

Today from the world of Tiny Tech:

Have you ever closed your eyes and tried to identify an object by running your fingers over it? This is what an atomic force microscope does but on a very small scale. It runs a tiny sharp tip over a surface and constructs an image from the rise and fall of the tip. If the tip is sharp enough, you can get an image of something as small as a strand of DNA, but getting a tip that sharp isn't easy.

Researchers have now found a way to grow ultra-sharp nano-sized spikes—called nanopillars—right onto the tips of special microscope probes. The nanopillars are grown by a method kind of like miniature spray painting, except the spray is kept pointed at one spot.

These nanopillars, which contain tungsten, are less than 10 nanometers wide at the tip. They are also tough: they can be used repeatedly and can be cleaned between experiments. And, yes, you can use them to make images of single strands of DNA.

To make this new achievement possible, the researchers did something very clever. I guess both they and their nanopillars are really sharp!

Tiny Tech is made possible by the National Science Foundation and WUFT. To learn more about Tiny Tech, go to tinytechradio.org.

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