Magnetic resonance force

microscopy
 What is
MICROSCOPY???
 Microscopy is the field of using
microscopes to view samples or
objects that cannot be seen with the
unaided eye (objects that are not
within the resolution range of the
normal eye).

 There are three well-known branches

of microscopy, optical, electron, and
scanning probe microscopy.
 Optical and Electron microscopy
involve the diffraction , reflection , or
refraction, and the subsequent
collection of this scattered radiation in
order to build up an image

 Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) is a

branch of microscopy that forms
images of surfaces using a physical
probe that scans the specimen.
 MRFM

 Magnetic resonance force

microscopy (MRFM) is an imaging
technique that acquires magnetic
resonance images (MRI) at
nanometer scales, and possibly at
atomic scales in the future.

 Type of Scanning Probe Microscopy

(SPM)
 MRI + AFM = MRFM
The MRFM concept combines the
ideas of magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI) and atomic force microscopy
(AFM)

The sensitivity of a current MRFM

microscope is 10 billion times better
than a medical MRI used in hospitals.
MRI
 The body is largely composed of water molecules

 Magnetic moments of these protons changes

and aligns with the direction of the field
 An MRI machine a radio frequency transmitter is briefly
turned on, producing an electromagnetic field. The
photons of this field have just the right energy, known as
the resonance frequency, to flip the spin of the aligned
 protons in the body
The difference in energy between the two states is
released as a photon

 An image can be constructed because the protons in

different tissues return to their equilibrium state at
different rates, which is a difference that can be
detected
AFM
 The AFM consists of a cantilever with a sharp tip
(probe) at its end that is used to scan the
specimen surface
 When the tip is brought into proximity of a sample
surface, forces between the tip and the sample
lead to a deflection of the cantilever 
 Typically, the deflection is measured using
a laser spot reflected from the top surface of the
cantilever into an array of photodiodes
 If the tip was scanned at a constant height, a
risk would exist that the tip collides with the
surface, causing damage. Hence, in most cases
a feedback uses 
MRFM
 MRFM uses a cantilever  tipped with
a ferromagnetic (iron cobalt) particle to directly
detect a modulated spin gradient force
between sample spins and the tip
 As the ferromagnetic  tip moves close to the
sample, the atoms’ nuclear spins become
attracted to it and generate a small force on the
cantilever. 
 Displacement is measured with
an interferometer  (laser beam) to create a
series of 2-D images of the sample
 Milestones
 The first MRFM image was obtained in 1993
at the IBM Almaden Research Center with
1-μm resolution
 Detection of the magnetic spin of a single
electron was achieved in 2004

 In 2009 researchers at IBM and Stanford

announced that they had achieved
resolution of better than 10 nanometers,
imaging tobacco mosaic virus particles
on a nanometer-thick layer of adsorbed
hydrocarbons.
 Application
 Microbiology and nanotechnology

 High resolution and accuracy.

 Able to detect a single proton spin

 Atomic-resolution microscopy

 3-D imaging capability

THANK YOU