Nanomanipulation: Buckling, Transport and Rolling at the Nanoscale

摘要

The study of novel materials produces many challenges in the areas of synthesis, modeling and characterization. For the latter, one would like to be able to determine mechanical, electrical and dynamical properties, and correlate them with structure. In the following chapter, we describe work performed at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC) in the development of microscopy instrument systems, including a natural interface for scanned probe microscopy we call the nanoManipulator. We describe the principle design features of the instrument system including the visual display of data, the haptic (force-feedback) control and display capabilities. Second, we describe the combination of microscopy and manipulation in a joint Scanning Electron Microscopy/Scanning Probe Microscopy system. These systems have been used for studies of nanotube mechanical dynamical and electrical properties,8 and for the study of biological macromolecular structures such as viruses, fibers (pili, fibrin, microtubules, etc.) and molecules (DNA). We describe examples of these studies drawn from our work on nanotubes and viruses.