MRI: Acquisition of an Asylum Cypher ES High-Speed Environmental AFM

非技术性收购庇护研究Cypher ES高速环境原子力显微镜（AFM）为生物物理学，化学，物理学，聚合物和材料科学等不同学科的研究人员开辟了新的研究途径。Cypher ES以精湛的速度、分辨率和灵敏度生成令人惊叹的微观物体和现象的图像和电影。Cypher ES位于芝加哥大学的一个共享研究设施内，对来自学术界、教育界和工业界的所有用户和研究团队开放，并配置了先进的功能，使其成为整个中西部唯一的同类系统。因此，Cypher ES不仅大大提高了校园研究能力，还为整个中西部地区的研究界提供了宝贵的资源，并为国家研究基础设施做出了重大贡献。此外，Cypher ES提高了实验室和课堂的学生教育质量。在学习使用该仪器时，学生将接受一对一的全面培训，提供重要的工具和理解，以推进他们的研究活动和年轻科学家的成长。该仪器集成到本科和研究生实验室课程。这种包容性支持旨在将研究培训纳入传统课堂的课程开发。Cypher ES还在年度开放日的显微镜演示中展示，该开放日是面向公众和周围芝加哥南区社区的科学宣传的重要组成部分。TechnicalThe新一代快速扫描原子力显微镜（AFM）提供了以以前无法达到的高空间和时间分辨率解决动态过程的能力。Cypher ES高速环境AFM具有快速成像速率、强大的热稳定性、闭环扫描、先进的环境室和专有的blueDrive悬臂梁激励。总之，这些功能大大减少了由于漂移和失真造成的伪影，并提高了成像速度、稳定性和分辨率。悬臂弹簧常数的自动非接触式校准允许精确控制相互作用力（至皮牛顿水平），并能够直接表征和操纵敏感样品的纳米级粘弹性机械性能。将Cypher ES作为芝加哥大学已建立的共享用户设施的一部分，使大量具有广泛兴趣的研究小组能够开展活动：包括膜生物物理学、细胞生物力学和肌动蛋白、生物电子学、合成细胞界面、可编程DNA拓扑结构、嵌段共聚物、混合纳米颗粒材料、自旋电子学和量子材料、3D超分子材料，分子电子学和聚合物太阳能电池。快速的扫描速度、高分辨率和精致的力敏度有助于成像和揭示不同材料、化学和生物物理系统中的新型动力学。该系统是位于芝加哥地区的开放式共享用户设施中的第一个Cypher ES，可供来自学术界和工业界的所有感兴趣的校内和校外用户使用。此外，它是整个中西部唯一一个使用blueDrive的Cypher系统，因此对研究基础设施产生了广泛而重大的影响，远远超出了芝加哥大学的范围。该系统还将被纳入本科生和研究生实验室课程，并为课堂上的学生提供先进的扫描探针技术经验。

Non-technicalThe acquisition of an Asylum Research Cypher ES high-speed environmental atomic force microscope (AFM) opens up new research avenues for investigators in diverse disciplines spanning biophysics, chemistry, physics, polymers, and materials science. The Cypher ES produces stunning images and movies of microscopic objects and phenomena with exquisite speed, resolution, and sensitivity. The Cypher ES is located in a shared research facility at the University of Chicago, is open to all users and research teams from academia, education, and industry alike, and is configured with advanced features that render it the only system of its kind in the entire Midwest. Accordingly, the Cypher ES not only substantially enhances campus research capabilities, it also provides an invaluable resource for the entire Midwest region research community, and significantly contributes to the national research infrastructure. Furthermore, the Cypher ES improves the quality of student education both in the laboratory and the classroom. When learning to use the instrument, students receive one-on-one comprehensive training that provides vital tools and understanding to advance their research activities and formative growth as young scientists. The instrument is integrated into undergraduate and graduate lab courses. This inclusion supports curriculum development aimed at incorporating research training into the traditional classroom. The Cypher ES is also showcased in microscopy demonstrations at an annual Open House that comprises an important part of science outreach to the general public and the surrounding Chicago Southside neighborhoods.TechnicalThe new generation of fast scan atomic force microscopes (AFMs) offer the ability to resolve dynamical processes with high spatial and temporal resolutions previously unattainable. The Cypher ES high-speed environmental AFM features fast imaging rates, robust thermal stabilization, closed-loop scanning, advanced environmental chambers, and proprietary blueDrive cantilever excitation. Taken together, these features greatly reduce artifacts due to drift and distortion and enhance imaging speed, stability, and resolution. Automatic non-contact calibration of cantilever spring constants allows for precise control of interaction forces (to picoNewton levels) and enables direct nanoscale viscoelastic mechanical property characterization and manipulation of sensitive samples. The inclusion of the Cypher ES as part of an established shared user facility at the University of Chicago enables the activities of a significant number of research groups with expansive interests: including membrane biophysics, cellular biomechanics and actin, bioelectronics, synthetic cellular interfaces, programmable DNA topologies, block co-polymers, hybrid nanoparticle materials, spintronics and quantum materials, 3D supramolecular materials, molecular electronics, and polymer solar cells. The fast scanning speed, high resolution, and exquisite force sensitivity helps image and reveal new types of dynamics in diverse material, chemical, and biophysical systems. The system is the first Cypher ES located in an open-access shared user facility in the Chicago area and is available to all interested on- and off-campus users from academia and industry. Furthermore, it is the only Cypher system with blueDrive in the entire Midwest, and thus has a broad and significant impact on research infrastructure that extends far beyond the University of Chicago. The system will also be included in undergraduate and graduate lab course curricula and serve to provide experience with advanced scanning probe techniques to students in the classroom.