Bioscope II Catalyst atomic force microscope (Bruker). The AFM is equipped with 150x150x15 um^3 XYZ piezos. Available imaging modalities are contact, tapping and Peak Force tapping mode. The miscroscope can be operated for doing force spectroscopy in the following modalities: standard ramping (ramp), Force Volume (FV), Point & Shoot (P&S) and Peak Force QNM.

The Catalyst is coupled with a fluorescence macroscope. If working on petri dishes, the sample should not be centered in the petri, but placed in correspondence to the hole of the sample holder.

Nanowizard III atomic force microscope (JPK). The AFM is equipped with 100x100x15 um^3 XYZ piezos and an extra Z piezo of 100um can be used in place of the standard Z if the microscope is used in CellHesion mode. Available imaging modalities are contact, Alternative Contact (AC, corresponing to Bruker's Tapping) and Force Modulation mode. The microscope can be operated for doing force spectroscopy in the following modalities: standard ramping (ramp), Force Mapping (FM, corresponding to Bruker's Force Volume) and Quantitative Imaging (QI, NOT! corresponding to Bruker's Peak Force QNM).

The Nanowizard III is coupled with a simple white light zoom tube.

If working in petri dishes, the sample should be placed at the center of the dish.

Triboindenter TI 950 (Hysitron-->Bruker). The instrument is equipped with a closed-loop piezolectric scanner (for imaging mode) and 2 transducers can be used: a DMA transducer (suited for dynamic nano-mechanical analysis, quasi-static indentation and imaging) and a 2D transducer (suited for scratch/friction measurements, quasi-static indentation and imaging). Both transducers have an indentation axis 5um long: for deeper indentations, the XZ500 piezoelectric stage can be activated, allowing for 500um indentation depths.

Several indenters (probes) are available:

  for air measurements: Berkovich

  for liquid measurements: Berkovich, 90° cube corner, Flat end 100um-90° conical, 100um-90° conical (spherical end), 10um-90° conical, 1um-90° conical. The 3 last probes are actually sphero-conical indenters.