The First Small, Low Noise Cantilever for AC-in-Fluid
and Force Measurements for Soft Samples

Single molecule force measurements rely on the ability to measure exquisitely small changes in the position of the force-sensing cantilever. In an optimized instrument such as the MFP-3D™ AFM, positional noise is dominated by Brownian motion of the cantilever. It has been recently shown that one way to reduce the thermal noise of a lever is to simply make it smaller. The Bio-Lever, the first small, low noise cantilever manufactured by Olympus Optical Co., does this by proportionally decreasing both the thickness and the length, without increasing the spring constant of the cantilever.

This application note will compare the measured noise levels of three commercially available cantilevers and also show examples of imaging with the Bio-Lever. For the full text, download the PDF copy of the Low Noise Cantilever Application Note.

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Noise comparison of a Bio-Lever and TM Microlever.

DNA imaging and manipulation with the Bio-Lever. (Select image for larger view of manipulation and force curve sequence.)