nanonis spm control system - specs-zurich.com · it is a true pleasure to see how the output from...

Nanonis SPM Control System

Most user-friendly, upgradeable and stable SPM controller on the market.

Ready for non-contact AFM due to integrated high-performance oscillation controller.

Generic control of SPM-based experiments with most flexible measurement framework.

Nanonis was founded because there was no SPM controller on the market powerful, feature-

rich and stable enough to enable researchers to concentrate exclusively on their R&D topic.

In their own research, Nanonis' founders discovered that every control system available had

serious deficiencies. Increasingly, time and effort needed for the core investigations they were

conducting was instead being spent on overcoming these deficiencies.

MOST USER-FRIENDLY, UPGRADEABLE AND STABLE SPM CONTROLLER ON THE MARKET

The usability and stability of even the most powerful research tool must be guaranteed if it is

to be useful in the long-term. Nanonis' designers have provided every user-friendly feature

imaginable, based on years of work with SPMs. By relying on standard industrial hardware

and high level software development tools they have been able to build a highly cost effective,

stable and easily upgradeable system.

The graphical user interface presents all functional modules in independent windows. This

allows users to survey all signals and parameters at a glance. These are all represented as real

world numbers with an associated SI unit. Signals are displayed as animated indicators, and

parameters can be precisely adjusted using the mouse. The QuickScale™ buttons let you

adjust all scales in graphs, sliders and indicators with a single mouse click. All settings

and parameters, whether global or for a single module, can be stored in session-oriented

configuration files.

It is a true pleasure to see how the output from your measured probe changes in complete

synchrony as you change control parameters. No other system on the market features such

impressive, instantaneous performance.

INTRODUCTIONWHY THE

Nanonis SPM control systemSHOULD BE USED WITH ANY SCANNING PROBE MICROSCOPE

Scanning Probe Microscopes (SPM) are at the heart of a great number of nanotechnology andnanoscience R&D projects. Applying their immense SPM application know-how, Nanonis built anSPM control system that provided all the necessary control features, performance, flexibility anduser-friendliness they needed to allow them to concentrate on their exciting research and engineering topics. With this SPM controller a new standard of SPM operating system has beenreached and put into use in numerous R&D facilities around the world.

2 Nanonis SPM Control System

READY FOR NON-CONTACT AFM DUE TO INTEGRATED HIGH-PERFORMANCE OSCILLATION CONTROLLER

Nanonis' proven experience in designing and applying Phase Locked Loops (PLL) for

dynamic force microscopy led to this new development of the highest performance

Oscillation Controller on the market.

Due to its fully digital implementation the Nanonis Oscillation Controller is free from

internal noise and drifts and completely eliminates any compromises between range

and resolution. The high frequency resolution of 48 bit enables the user to exploit the

powerful principle of the frequency modulation scheme to the ultimate limits.

The major advantage is the tight integration into the complete SPM control system.

Signals are digitally communicated to the z-controller and to data acquisition process-

es, without time lag and with full resolution. The integration also allows for higher

functionality, as exemplified by the SafeTip™ feature which prevents tip-crashes in the

delicate non-contact mode. Specialized tools enable the user to perform advanced

setup and calibration tasks for dynamic modes with ease.

Full access to all parameters lets you configure a vast number of operation modes. You

can even install multiple oscillation controllers for combined lateral/vertical force

microscopy, STM/AFM, or Kelvin probe methods.

The Nanonis Oscillation Controller is also perfectly suited to accurately measure the

dissipation, due to its lock-in technique which measures and controls the oscillator's

amplitude.

GENERIC CONTROL OF SPM-BASED EXPERIMENTS WITH MOST FLEXIBLE MEASUREMENT FRAMEWORK

Owing to its roots in an experiment control system for electronic nanostructures, the

Nanonis SPM controller is also a complete center for controlling the environment of an

SPM and for the acquisition of arbitrary one-, two-, or higher dimensional experimental

datasets. It is configured for connection to any laboratory equipment via GPIB, serial,

USB, TCP or cPCI and for integration of the appropriate software modules into the

experiment control framework.

Nanonis SPM Control System 3

Since we have been using the Nanonis SPM Control System we have been able to focus completely on our scientific agenda, not on system downtime. In the two years we have had it, it has not let us down once.DR. THOMAS JUNG, NANOLAB, NCCR, UNIVERSITY BASEL, SWITZERLAND

Is working on molecular electronics. Decided to work with the Nanonis SPM controller due to its capacity of switching between different z-controller modes on the fly.

Courtesy of Dr. T. Jung, NCCR Basel, Switzerland Published ChemPhysChem, 3, 2002

The Nanonis SPM control system is a fully modular design for maximum upgradeability and

flexibility. Using off-the-shelf industrial hardware and standard Windows PCs ensures a simple

and cost efficient path for future upgrades.

The Nanonis SPM control system is adaptable to an unlimited range of different SPM systems.

This ease of integration has been demonstrated and confirmed by our highly satisfied customers.

The Nanonis control system is therefore also ideal as OEM component in commercial systems.

Furthermore it is well suited for integration into automated production processes as for example

SPM-based quality assurance.

SYSTEM ARCHITECTUREMODULAR AND FLEXIBLE CONCEPT BASED ON INDUSTRIAL HARDWARE COMPONENTS

By using Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology, Nanonis' architectshave achieved a hardware design that allows for the kind of flexibility usuallyassociated with software implementations, while offering a level of processingperformance found only with custom hardware.


It was amazingly easy to connect the Nanonis SPM Control System to our Omicron LT-STM. We had atomic resolution on the first day we installed it!DR. HITOSHI SUZUKI, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY, KOBE, JAPAN

Is doing molecular manipulations with an Omicron LT-STM for which he needed a suitable SPM controller. His choice was Nanonis' SPM controller.


HOST COMPUTER■ Dynamic, interactive GUI■ Windows OS, TCP/IP client■ Non time-critical program modules

■ signal analysis: spectrum analyzer, oscilloscope, data history■ experiments: force spectroscopy, atom manipulation■ user interfaces (GUIs) and device logic

NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS PXI CONTROLLER■ All time-critical control loop processes: z-control, oscillation control,

scan control and data acquisition■ TCP/IP server

NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS FPGA CARD■ AD/DA, digital IO, digital filters, state machines■ Nanonis' Oscillation Control (digital PLL)

SIGNAL CONDITIONING AND CONNECTOR BOX (SCCB)■ Analog interfaces, 16 channels supported per 1 U unit■ Signal conditioning

HIGHEST FREQUENCY RESOLUTION

The phase accumulation register has a width of 48 bit resulting in a fre-

quency resolution better than 1 µHz.

ZERO INTERNAL NOISE

Due to the fully digital design, none of the noise or drifts present in analog

systems can disturb internal signal paths.

TIGHTLY INTEGRATED

Signals are directly communicated to other modules such as z-controller,

data acquisition and online analysis, with full resolution and range, and

without any time lag. All signals are internally represented as floating point

numbers with SI units. The same user interface is used for all operations

with the SPM. Automation of measurements involving multiple modules

is easily achieved.

VERSATILE OPERATION MODES

All parameters and settings are accessible for versatile configuration of

operation modes such as phase imaging, frequency modulation, tapping

mode, dissipation imaging and many more.

CALIBRATION AND SETUP TOOLS

A vast set of calibration, analysis, setup and measurement tools is available

for efficient operation of dynamic mode SPM. For example, the user can

acquire the frequency response or noise analysis of the oscillator, a phase

sweep of the PLL, or a bode-diagram of open and closed control loops.

OSCILLATION CONTROLFULLY DIGITAL INTEGRATED PHASE LOCKED LOOP

Nanonis' best-of-class oscillation controller is a fully digital design tightly integrated into the entire SPM control system, which is thus uniquely ready fordynamic mode SPM.


Frequency is the physical quantity that can be measured with the highest degree of accuracy. This allows for precise measurement of any other physical observable, whenever it can be converted to a frequency.

SafeTip™

Especially useful in the delicate non-contact mode; the tip is

protected effectively by setting a threshold for any signal as

for example excitation or amplitude. The z-controller will

withdraw the tip in less than 100 µs. These conditions occur

well before the tip crashes or the PLL gets unlocked.

FREQUENCY ACCURACY AND STABILITY

The temperature-compensated reference quartz clock offers

highly accurate frequency measurements. However, an

optional atomic clock provides the ultimate limit of accuracy

and stability.

WIDE FREQUENCY RANGE

The frequency ranges from 1 kHz for ultra-sensitive can-

tilevers used in MRFM, up to 2 MHz for nanocantilevers used

in high-speed imaging.

WIDE AMPLITUDE RANGE

The analog input signal is carefully pre-amplified with a

continuous gain logarithmic pre-amplifier. A wide range of

signal amplitudes can be adjusted to cover the full range of

the high performance 14 bit analog-digital converter, resulting

in significantly enhanced phase resolution and improved

signal-to-noise ratio.

ACCURATE AMPLITUDE DETECTION

In contrast to RMS-to-DC converters, the lock-in technique employed is able to detect the

amplitude of the signal accurately even in the presence of noise or further signals. This is

especially important for small amplitude AFM and for multiple resonance operation.

MULTIPLE OSCILLATION CONTROLLERS

For simultaneous tracking of multiple resonances, or for advanced Kelvin probe methods,

additional oscillation controllers can be easily installed.



HIGH PERFORMANCE ALGORITHMS

The Nanonis z-controller uses highly advanced control

algorithms that guarantee bumpless starting and stopping

and prevent from windup effects.

USER-DEFINED CONTROLLER MODES

You can define your own set of different controller set-

tings. For each controller you can define which signal

(e.g. phase, amplitude, frequency, deflection, current) to

control, and how to control (logarithm, absolute or direct

value). The settings for proportional and integral gains,

the set point, and the polarity are stored for each con-

troller separately.

ON-THE FLY SWITCHING OF CONTROLLER MODE

The instantaneous switching facility allows users to switch the controller mode seamlessly

even during operation. This is especially useful for nanolithography and nanomanipulation

experiments.

SafeTip™

SafeTip™ is a highly useful time and cost saving tool, especially in the dynamic mode, in which

one has to cope with intrinsic instability. No more tip crashes! This feature automatically takes

over when a user-defined limit is exceeded. The z-controller is then immediately switched off

and the tip withdrawn to a user-defined level at which it is safe. Furthermore it increases the

quality of images because the tip is not blunted following the initial approach.

TipLift™

Researchers generally like to position the tip at a certain sample position, just a few nanometers

above the surface. With TipLift™ this task becomes both easy and safe! Simply define the

separation distance and switch the controller off. The tip is automatically retracted by the

value you have specified without any danger of crashes.

Z-CONTROLLERTOP-OF-LINE TIP-SAMPLE INTERACTION CONTROLLER

Keeping the probe at a close distance above the surface is a core functionality of every SPM controller. Nanonis brings to market an outstanding solution that is thoroughgoing in versatility and performance.

NaCl crystals on Cu, courtesy of Dr. T. Jung


INTERACTIVE SCANNING

At all times the position of the tip is visualized in the interactive scan control window. The

scan frame can be adjusted in size and position or rotated on the fly during a scan, by using

the mouse. The views of the virtual cameras looking onto the sample can also be interactively

zoomed in and out, rotated and paned in real-time.

ADVANCED SCAN CONTROL

The surface velocity or alternatively the time per line can be kept constant when the scan frame

is scaled. Independent speeds for forward and backward scan help optimize time efficiency.

Noise is automatically reduced for slower scan speeds due to the

highly sophisticated data acquisition process.

HIGH RESOLUTION DATA ACQUISITION

Don't miss the details! With up to 10'000 pixels per line you can

acquire big data sets that allow you to zoom in whenever an

important detail is sighted. No constraints with square pixels or

square scan frames need bother you when choosing the resolution.

For advanced SPM experiments, up to 16 data channels (both

forward and backward) can be recorded simultaneously. It is

no longer unusual to acquire datasets of up to 1 GByte per scan

– the answer to “plenty of room at the bottom”!

MANIPULATION AND LITHOGRAPHY CAPABILITIES

Using the mouse, you can position the tip on the sample completely interactively. The tip

always moves with well-defined surface velocity. The z-controller can be switched between

two settings – like pen up and down – to manipulate single atoms and molecules, or to inscribe

the surface. During the manipulation process all selected signals are recorded with up to

10 kS/s for a detailed analysis of the manipulation events. The actions of the tip can be defined

in a script file for lithography of complex structures.

POINT SPECTROSCOPY

An expanding set of point spectroscopy tools allows you to investigate local sample properties

in close detail. You can sweep the bias voltage (I-V spectroscopy, Kelvin probe), the tip-sample

distance (force-distance curves), or any user-defined signals.

OFFLINE DATA PROCESSING

The Nanonis file format is compatible with various scan data processing programs, for example

SPIP™, the Scanning Image Processor from Image Metrology and WSxM™ from Nanotec.

The Nanonis file format is well documented and example routines are provided to import data

into various processing programs like Matlab or IDL.

SCAN CONTROL & MANIPULATIONUSER-FRIENDLY SCAN CONTROL, MANIPULATION AND POINT SPECTROSCOPY

The scan, manipulation and spectroscopy capabilities were designed with thegoals of providing the most user-friendly graphical interface possible and takingadvantage of latest improvements in processor power and memory capacity.

EXAMINE YOUR SIGNAL HISTORY

Whenever you notice an event that

you need to investigate in closer detail,

you can access all signals of the pre-

vious few minutes through the signal

history. Have you ever wanted to know

exactly what happened as the tip was

approached onto the sample?

LOW NOISE AND HIGH PRECISION INPUT AND OUTPUT

PRECISE ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL AND DIGITAL-TO-ANALOG CONVERSION

The high quality industrial hardware componentsbased on the latest technology signal convertersensure measurements at the edge of the limits – today and in the future.

LOW-NOISE SIGNAL CONDITIONING

Careful analog signal conditioning is provided in an external box to ensure signal quality

without compromise.

ADVANCED OVERSAMPLING

Depending on the experiment, data acquisition at variable sample rates may be required; there-

fore advanced oversampling and filtering algorithms automatically reduce noise and enhance

the resolution easily above 22 bit. The software simultaneously handles different sampling

rates for different acquisition processes.

REAL-TIME SIGNAL ANALYSIS AND MONITORINGAVOID THE COST OF EXTERNAL INSTRUMENTS

Using the online signal analysis tools you can inspect all dynamic signals without the costof expensive external instruments. Furthermore, efficiency and flexibility are significantlyenhanced. No ground loops are formed by connecting an additional instrument. You analyzeexactly the digital signal that you are working on.



APPLICATIONSSUPPORTED

The Nanonis SPM controller is designed to be used in literally any SPM application as shownbelow. Additional application software (e.g. lithography, Kelvin probe, 3-D force spectroscopy,magnetic resonance force microscopy, haptic manipulation interface and much more) willbe available from Nanonis.*

*) Please check with us to obtain the most current list of available application packs.

SERVICESAND SUPPORT OFFERED

Nanonis offers full installation and application support. Our consulting and

project management services encompass areas such as:■ Software and hardware for measurement automation■ Customer modules development for the Nanonis SPM Controller■ Support for tuning-fork related applications technology■ SPM upgrades■ Industrial automation and SPM based quality assurance

The Nanonis SPM Controller is the ideal OEM solution for SPM providers.

Nanonis ensures access to technical support provided by highly experienced SPM application experts who

fully understand your needs and will be ideally qualified to help you with any issue around SPM controls.

The Nanonis SPM control system gives us a highly user-friendly graphical control interface which allowsus to fully focus on our measurements of high resolution magnetic force images.DR. JOACHIM AHNER, SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY, PITTSBURGH, PA, USA

Uses a high-resolution magnetic force microscope equipped with the Nanonis SPM Control System for R&D on hard disks.

TYPICAL APPLICATION AREAS■ Low temperature SPM■ Nanomanipulations■ Nanolithography■ Molecular electronics■ Magnetic media■ Ferroelectric materials■ Semiconductors processing■ Lithography masks■ Biotechnology■ Electro-optics, and much more

Front cover: SubPc on Ag111, courtesy of Dr. T. Jung, NCCR Basel, SwitzerlandBack cover: Si111, courtesy of Dr. H. Suzuki, NICT, Kobe, Japan

MFM image of hard disk, courtesy of Dr. J. Ahner, Seagate Technology, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

ABOUT US

Backed by more than a decade of first-hand SPM application expertise, Nanonis was founded

with the support of the leading R&D facilities in Switzerland.

The list of satisfied customers is growing worldwide, allowing Nanonis to expand its operations

and look to an exciting future.

Our vision has come true: Build the most user-friendly and powerful SPM control system in

the market allowing engineers and scientists to fully focus on their core investigations.

Nanonis GmbH

Technoparkstrasse 1

8005 Zurich

Switzerland

[email protected]

www.nanonis.com

T +41 (0) 44 445 18 25

F +41 (0) 44 445 18 26

© 2004 Nanonis GmbH. All rights reserved. Nanonis, SafeTip, TipLift and QuickScale are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nanonis GmbH. Other brand and product names are trademarks of theirrespective holders. Product specifications are subject to change without notice.

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