Top-view optics for an atomic force microscope

原子力显微镜(AFM)是观察纳米尺度的重要工具，我们经常使用它来可视化纳米大小的物体。最近，我们开发了一种简单的方法来制备各种类型的纳米颗粒，这种纳米颗粒可以具有多种性质，如对磁场、电场和光场的响应。原子力显微镜有可能单独询问这些粒子，以便检查性质的可变性，而不像其他只能提供关于粒子集合的信息的技术。单粒子与系综的问题是有趣的基础科学，但它在材料的应用和性能设计方面也很重要。为了以这种方式使用原子力显微镜，我们需要能够对单个纳米颗粒进行不同的测量。这意味着我们需要能够重复定位纳米颗粒，这是可以做到的，前提是我们可以在衬底上产生一系列标记，以某种方式很容易看到。这项提议是为了增加一个俯视光学系统，可以添加到我们现有的AFM上，以便能够对单个纳米颗粒进行重复测量

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is an important tool for looking at the nanoscale, and we routinely use it for visualization of nanometer-sized objects. Recently, we have developed a simple approach for making various types of nanoparticles, which could have a wide variety of properties such as in their response to magnetic, electric and optical fields. The AFM has the potential to be able to interrogate these particles individually, in order to examine variability in properties, unlike other techniques that can only give information about an ensemble of particles. The issue of single particle vs ensemble is interesting fundamental science, but it also is important in terms of application and design of properties of materials. In order to use the AFM in this manner, we need to be able to perform different measurements on a single nanoparticle. This means that we need to be able to locate a nanoparticle repeatedly, which can be done provide we can produce a series of marks on a substrate that can be easily seen in some way. This proposal is for the addition of a top-view optical system that can be added to our existing AFM in order to enable the repeated measurement on a single nanoparticle