The Cypher ES AFM from Oxford Instruments Asylum Research enhances the basic model’s ultra-high resolution and rapid scanning with a well-implemented environmental control.
A completely sealed gas-tight and liquid-tight sample cell that offers the basis for environmental control options like heating, cooling, humidity control, and an electrochemical cell is a feature of the Cypher ES scanner, which improves the versatility of the Cypher AFM platform.
Due to its superior environmental control capabilities, the Cypher ES is the ideal AFM for research on polymers, graphene and other 2D materials, batteries, photovoltaic materials, biomolecules, and biomembranes.
Uniquely Well Implemented Environmental Control Capabilities
The Cypher CS is the only atomic force microscope that features a sealed, pressure-tight sample chamber. It was designed from the ground up to support outstanding environmental control with a fully sealed pressure-tight sample cell.
The environmental control capabilities of the Cypher ES are programmed using this innovative design, leading to environmental management that is more efficient and user-friendly than that of other AFMs.
Whether the user seeks to heat or cool the sample, control the humidity, operate in a dry or inert atmosphere, or use an electrochemical cell, it is essential that the cell can be fully sealed.
The sample must be protected, the environment must be constant and under control, and the AFM must be leak-free. Furthermore, the Cypher ES is engineered to help make imaging possible even in the most challenging experimental conditions, including hostile chemical solvents, and environments with low oxygen and water concentrations (in the sub-ppm).
Fast Scanning Captures Nanoscale Dynamic Processes
The Cypher ES was designed from the ground up to allow for faster scanning. The vast majority of AFMs on the market today are conventional AFMs, which scan images at a rate of only 1–2 lines per second, making it the acquisition process for each image highly time-consuming.
The Cypher ES rapid scanning AFM, on the other hand, is able to image up to 10–20 times faster and can capture images in as little as a few seconds.
The Cypher ES can thus examine dynamic nanoscale events in experimental settings like polymer temperature transitions, in operando battery tests, and etch and dissolution processes.
For the maximum degree of high-speed AFM imaging, the Cypher ES can be conveniently upgraded to the Cypher VRS1250, which provides scan rates up to 1250 lines/second and real video-rate AFM movies at up to 45 frames/second.
Easily and Routinely Obtain Higher Spatial Resolution
The Cypher ES was created from the ground up with the goal of obtaining exceptionally high spatial resolution. Since it is mechanically stable, it is typically used without additional vibration isolation.
The “mechanical loop,” which joins the sample to the AFM cantilever, is completely encased in the scanner, making it compact, rigid, and practically impervious to outside sources of disturbance and acoustic noise.
It differs from the other AFMs. Obtaining atomic and molecular resolution requires a “hero experiment” on the majority of AFMs. However, on the Cypher ES, these results can be made effortlessly and recurrently in any lab on any given day. The Cypher ES maintains its capacity to capture images at ultra-high resolution even in the high-noise and high-vibration atmosphere of a glovebox.
Simpler Environmental Control Opens New Research Potential
The Cypher ES is also incredibly practical and simple to use. Since it has a tiny footprint and good noise immunity, it can be placed in practically any place in the lab. The environmental control choices may be switched out fast and simply without the need for additional wires, tubing, or control boxes, and they can be entirely controlled by the AFM program.
This facilitates the construction and operation of environmental control experiments, which eventually expands the field of study and speeds up the creation of new sophisticated materials. Large multidisciplinary research groups and shared multi-user imaging facilities both benefit greatly from the Cypher ES’s quick switching between environmental control choices.