High resonance at around 110 kHz in air and 25 kHz in water while its small spring constant of around 0.1 N/m. The high resonance cantilever is worth while scanning fast to shorten the data acquisition time and to make smooth and quick operation in magnifying a target area on the sample surface.
Sharpened silicon tips with its tip radius of 10 nm (typ.)
Silicon nitride cantilever, minimized its auto fluorescence, would not become an obstacle in fluorescent observation.
Each cantilever chip is isolated in the case. The chips can be attached to the AFM instrument as soon as the case is open.
MORE ABOUT BIOLEVER MINI
‘BioLever mini’ has a silicon probe of two layer structure (see picture right). The probe on the probe support looks tetrahedral and the apex is further sharpened by an oxidation process. It shows higher aspect ratio than conventional pyramidal tips.
Due to the sharp tip, ‘BioLever mini’ is recommended for turning image resolution up another notch in studying of bio moleculers, DNA strands etc.
The long tip works to the advantage of AFM imaging of relatively thick samples like bio cells.
Bio samples like DNA strands scattered on mica substrate, would not be uniform in density over the substrate. Then, in the observation of such a sample, number of scanning over the sample would be carried out from large area to small area. The series of observation steps, it would be repeated until clearly revealing a point of interests at a certain magnification. However, previous cantilevers in large size cannot scan fast in water because of the large damping in water. What is longing for among many operators, is shorten the time for searching to confirm whether scan area includes the target DNAs. In the early steps of observation series, fast imaging is much benefitial rather than high resolution imaging. A cantilever with high resonance in water like this ‘BioLever mini’ would be required for fast scanning.
Stretching curve of a protein with ‘Bio-Lever mini’ （ Data Courtesy of Dr. M. Kawakami, Leeds Univ. U.K.）For force curve maesurement in water, the small area lever receives less damping with water so that it responds quickly to shape change of bio-moleculars with short relaxation time.
note
In use of ‘BioLever mini’, it is recommended that tuning of control parameters of AFM system like position adjustment of laser sensor spot, feedback servo gain, etc., should be carried out in liquid. Because ‘Bio-Lever mini’ was designed for the use in liquid.
‘BioLever mini’ (left image) less emitted autofluorescence light than conventional silicon nitride cantilever (right image) while observing fluorescence from stained bio samples. ‘BioLever mini’ less diturbs fluorescence optical microscopy than conventional soft cantilever probes.
