AFM - Asylum Research Vero
The Vero is a state-of-the-art interferometric AFM, featuring exceptionally low noise and fast scanning capabilities in addition to advanced scanning modes in air or liquid environments. Maximum lateral scan size on this instrument is 30 µm x 30 µm, and maximum vertical range is 5 µm.
The Oxford Instruments Asylum Research Vero S AFM builds on the popular, easy-to-use Cypher AFM design. The unique feature of the Vero is the QPDI interferometric cantilever detection which measures the vertical displacement of the cantilever instead of the deflection of the cantilever. This minimizes artifacts and ambiguities resulting from changes to local cantilever angle, and it also decreases the noise floor of the instrument related to cantilever detection for more sensitive measurements.
The Vero at MRL includes these upgrades:
- blueDrive photothermal excitation
- Fast Force Mapping
In addition to modes requiring no additional hardware, the Vero is compatible with the following Cypher accessories (shared with MRL's Cypher S):
- Droplet cantilever holder
- Dual-gain ORCA conductive AFM cantilever holder
- Air Temperature Controller (contact staff to perform the hardware swap)
- Scanning Tunneling Microscopy
This tool is located in room B12 MRL. Local and off-campus users interested in using these facilities should contact mrsec-info@illinois.edu to initiate the process.
This equipment was funded in part by the Illinois MRSEC NSF Award Number DMR-2309037. Its use should be acknowledged in any published works, with the wording: “The authors acknowledge the use of facilities and instrumentation at the Materials Research Laboratory Central Research Facilities, University of Illinois, partially supported by NSF through the University of Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center DMR-2309037.” Please also send a copy of the publication (email or hard copy), or the publication information (citation, DOI, or conference name and paper/poster title) to mrsec-info@illinois.edu.