Intended for wide application automated monoblock AFM/STM measurement system with a built-in video microscope

Main features

• Industry leading automation level
• Outstanding noise floor and thermal drifts
• Fast scanner with XYZ low-noise close-loop
• Routine atomic resolution
• 60+ SPM modes in basic configuration
• Continuous zoom from millimeter to nanometer range
• Integrated with new Atomic Force Microscopy technique HybriD Mode™

Ultimate automation

Atomic Force Microscope NEXT provides motorized sample positioning and integrated high resolution optical microscope positioning, motorized continuous zoom and focusing of the optical microscope. But AFM automation is more than just motorization. Powerful Nova PX software algorithms remove a gap between optics and AFM providing continuous zoom from huge panoramic optical view down to  atomic resolution.
Since all step movers are coupled together with the optical image, NEXT provides autofocus, fast one-click cantilever alignment, panoramic optical view and multiple scanning on 5×5 mm range.

Automation features

• Cantilever recognition and automatic laser alignment both in liquidand air
• Autofocus
• Panoramic optical field of view up to 7×7mm with 2um resolution
• Point-and-click motorized precise sample positioning
• Gentle engagement procedure and automatic feedback loop adjustment
• Automated MultiScan™ routine on 5x5mm range with stitching of   overlapping scans
• 100s of scans per day automatically
• Automatic software configuration for all advanced modes
• 3D mouse for controlling sample stage and optical microscope step movers 

Measuring techniques

Advanced control electronics
Powerful and flexible PX Ultra controller allows high-quality AFM operations with small deflection noise (~25 fm/√Hz), low-noise high voltage drive (noise < 1mV/600V) and multi-frequency measurements with five lock-in amplifiers.

Easy-to-use and flexible software
Nova PX software contains predefined settings and smart algorithms for fast configuration of the NEXT operation in all advanced modes. Along with fast configuration Nova PX software allows researchers to have unlimited experiment flexibility.

Topography measurements
Contact AFM and AM-AFM  (semicontact and non-contact modes) are available for topography measurements with the option of viewing several relevant signals.

Curves analysis
Analysis of data curves of various nature (distance relations of force, amplitude, frequency, phase, or current, as well as bias voltage relations of force or current) supplies a vast amount of diverse information on the sample.      

Electrical studies
NEXT offers a wide variety of electric measurement techniques, including Electrostatic force microscopy with amplitude and frequency modulation, Kelvin probe force microscopy with amplitude or phase modulation, measurement of dC/dZ  and dC/dV relations, quantitative probing of dielectric properties and Spreading resistance imaging.

STM measurements
STM measurements can be performed in the modes of constant current or of constant height. STM spectroscopy provides relations I(V), I(Z), dI/dV, and dI/dZ.

Magnetic properties
For MFM measurements, the two-pass mode with tracking the sample surface topography and the mode of constant height in the scanner coordinate frame  are implemented.

Nanomechanics 
NEXT allows much room for material research by its nanosclerometry feature. Quantitative measurements of hardness and Young modulus are available with Berkovich-type probes and  commercial AFM cantilevers depending on the properties of the sample.

Applications

With its wide variety of techniques and modes of probe measurements, the NEXT measurement complex is applicable for many challenges in science and technology. Scanning with atomic resolution that by NEXT can offer is of high demand in physicochemical research of solid surfaces, low-dimensional nanostructures, and nanomaterials.
Surface morphology analysis provides parameters of roughness, texture, and anisotropy of the sample surface as well as distributions of adsorbed particles and geometrical characteristics of those particles.
Dedicated gentle scanning techniques are now available to study powders, soft materials, biological structures, biomolecules, biopolymers, and to perform measurements in liquid.

A peculiar place in applications of NEXT is taken by material science. It includes study of adhesion characteristics, friction factors, wear resistance of coatings, elasticity moduli, hardness etc.
Wide variety of techniques for measurement of electrical characteristics implemented in NEXT (local resistance, surface potential, capacitance, photovoltaic parameters) enables analysis of various functional structures, components of micro-, nano- and molecular electronics, and sensors of many types.
NEXT offers comprehensive capabilities to study ferroelectrics in terms of their domain structure, hysteresis properties, and thermal characteristics.