AFM for studies in the conditions of controlled environment, low vacuum, external magnetic fields.

General information

NTEGRA Aura is a Scanning Probe Microscope for studies in the conditions of controlled environment and low vacuum.

The Q-factor of the cantilever in vacuum increases, thus gaining the sensitivity, reliability and accuracy of “probe-sample” light forces measurements. At that, the change from atmosphere pressure to 10-2 Torr vacuum provides the tenfold gain of Q-factor. By further vacuum pumping, Q-factor reaches its plateau and changes insignificantly. Thus, NTEGRA Aura presents the optimal “price/quality” ratio: comparing to the high-vacuum devices it needs much less time – only one minute - to get the vacuum that is needed for the tenfold Q-factor increase. At the same time the system is compact and easy to operate and maintain. As the NTEGRA platform product, NTEGRA Aura has built-in closed loop control for all the axes, optical system with 1 µm resolution and ability to work with more than 40 different AFM methods.

Due to the open architecture, the functionality of NTEGRA Aura can be widen essentially: specialized magnetic measurements with external magnetic field (horizontal, up to +/-0.2 T; vertical, up to +/-0.02 T), high-temperature experiments (heating up to 300 0С with temperature maintaining precision of 0.05 0С), etc.

Applications

NTEGRA Aura allows to carry out the research of surface characteristics with nanometric resolution and near-surface physical fields of various objects that can be placed into vacuum.

Specifications

Measuring modes and techniques

AFM (contact + intermittent contact)/ HybriDTM mode/ Lateral Force Microscopy / Force Modulation Microscopy / Magnetic Force Microscopy/ Electrostatic Force Microscopy / Scanning Capacitance Force Microscopy/ Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy / Piezoresponce Force Microscopy/ Spreading-Resistance Imaging / STM/ Nanosclerometry/ Lithography: AFM (Force + Current), STM.

Technical data

Scan type Scanning by sample Scanning by probe*
Sample size
Up to 40 mm in diameter, 
up to 15 mm in height
Up to 100 mm in diameter,
up to 15 mm in height
Sample weight
Up to 100 g
Up to 300 g
XY sample positiniong range
5x5 mm
Positioning resolution
readable resolution - 5 um
sensitivity - 2 um
Scan range
100x100x10 um
3x3x2,6 um
100x100x10 um
50x50x5 um
Up to 150x150x15 um**(DualScanTM mode)
Non linearity, XY
(with closed loop sensors)
0.1%
0.15%
Noise level, Z
(RMS in bandwidth 1000 Hz)
With sensors
0.04 nm (typically),
0.06 nm
0.06 nm (typically),
0.07 nm
Without sensors
0.03 nm
0.05 nm
Noise level, XY***
(RMS in bandwidth 200 Hz)
With sensors
0.2 nm (typically),
0.3 nm (XY 100 um)
0.1 nm (typically),
0.2 nm 
Without sensors
0.02 nm (XY 100 um),
0.001 nm (XY 3 um)
0.01 nm 
Optical viewing system
Optical resolution
1 um
3 um
Field of view
4.5-0.4 mm
2.0-0.4 mm
Continuous zoom
available
available
Temperature control
Range
From RT to +150 oC
Stability
±0.005 oC (typically), ±0.01 oC
Vacuum system
Pressure
10-2 Torr
Vibration isolation
Active
 0.7-1000 Hz
Passive
above 1 kHz

 

* Scanning head can be configured to serve as a stand-alone device for specimens of unlimited sizes.
** Optionally can be expanded to 200x200x20 um.
*** Built-in capacitive sensors have extremely low noise and any area down to 50x50 nm can be scanned with closed-loop control.