New ORNL hybrid microscope offers unparalleled capabilities

http://www.ornl.gov/ornl/news/news-releases/2015/new-ornl-hybrid-microscope-offers-unparalleled-capabilities

A microscope being developed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National

Laboratory will allow scientists studying biological and synthetic materials to simultaneously observe chemical and physical properties on and beneath the surface.

The Hybrid Photonic Mode-Synthesizing Atomic Force Microscope is unique, according to principal investigator Ali Passian of ORNL’s Quantum Information System group. As a hybrid, the instrument, described in a paper published in Nature Nanotechnology, combines the disciplines of nanospectroscopy and nanomechanical microscopy.