Ultrafast Micro-cantilever Displacement and Metrology with Blu-Ray Optical Pick-ups

Lead Research Organisation: University of Bristol
Department Name: Physics

Abstract

The project aims to develop a suite of versatile high performance nanometrology instrumentation, based on cheap commercial components to satisfy industrial needs for low cost sensors and instrumentation for real-time, nano-resolution, large area imaging. The unrivalled bandwidth (> 100 MHz), resolution (580 nm focal spot and sub-nm displacement sensitivity) and low cost of DVD and Blu-ray optical heads makes them ideal candidates as metrology elements in instrumentation. They will be used for high-speed AFM (HS-AFM) and mass balance cantilever motion as well as for autocollimation and accelerometry with the aim of providing an x50 increase in world's fastest HS-AFM capture rate and temporal resolution. The metrological performance of instruments developed in this project will be evaluated.

Publications

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Studentship Projects

Project Reference Relationship Related To Start End Student Name
EP/N509085/1 01/10/2015 31/03/2021
1652638 Studentship EP/N509085/1 01/10/2015 30/09/2019 Frederick Russell-Pavier
 
Title Artwork for School of Physics, University of Bristol 
Description Datasets collected using the techniques developed in this project have been made into wall mounted artworks and presented in rooms around the School of Physics. 
Type Of Art Artwork 
Year Produced 2017 
Impact Demonstrating to visiting students and staff the power of the technical work that has been done. The artwork enabled clearer communication of the technique and data outputs. 
 
Title Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) compatible nanoscale surface 
Description For communicating datasets at conferences and talks data from the techniques developed in this project have been made access in VR and AR. This has been done through online cloud based web-app called Sketchfab. 
Type Of Art Artefact (including digital) 
Year Produced 2017 
Impact At conferences and talks the dataset hosted on this client server were able to be viewed in AR and VR with Google Cardboard. This helped to communicate the scale and context of the measurements. 
URL https://sketchfab.com/models/9189e184bc7a4d5092983170c846baed
 
Description As the award still in progress reporting of key findings is pending the publication of works.
Exploitation Route As the award still in progress reporting of key findings is pending the publication of works.
Sectors Other
 
Description Investigations into the use of modified optical pickup units for high-bandwidth nanoscale measurements have shown to be worthwhile. The pickup units (typically a few pounds in cost) have been demonstrated to have equivalence in a number of measurement applications that would otherwise require expensive equipment. In addition, the hardware is able to take these measurements up to 40 times quicker that other competing technologies. By decreasing the cost by up to 1000 times and increasing the throughput by up to 40 a simple argument would suggest the technology could be improved by up to 40,000 times per pound. This emerging economic impact therefore lies in reducing the financial barrier to entry for taking these types of measurements for both academic and industrial use cases. Furthermore, increases in speed also allow for comprehensive studies to be done in much shorter time periods. The industrial partner (The National Physical Laboratory) among others has a number of uses for these discoveries. By reducing the cost and increasing the throughput of nanoscale measurements this research can aid the development of nanotechnology, which still promise to emerge and revolutionise the world around us. The most impactful application of this research is via it integration into high-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM). In this instance in can be used ubiquitously for material characterisation and diagnostics throughout major disciplines such as medicine, aerospace, environment and many more. The challenges encountered in the project included taking an off-the-shelf technology used to play back media from CD/DVD/blu-rays, improving upon its functionality with little addition cost with bespoke electronics and hardware, and attempting to build an instrument that could match the performance to high-end scientific research machines that cost 100s of 1000s of pounds. A number of other application of this research have also been explored. Another key theme in this project is bringing metrology to HS-AFM. Working with NPL we were able to demonstrate this step change in the field. Allowing more confidence in the dimensions and enabling the scalability of our measurements.
First Year Of Impact 2016
Sector Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Electronics,Energy,Environment,Healthcare,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology
Impact Types Societal,Economic
 
Description Postgraduate Travel Fund, School of Physics, University of Bristol
Amount £533 (GBP)
Organisation University of Bristol 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2017 
End 06/2017
 
Title Contact mode high-speed atomic force microscopy in contact mode 
Description A key research tool developed here is research tool is a low cost video-rate surface probe microscope for the nanoscale. This instrument uses a mechanical interaction to probe surface topography at the atomic scale known as atomic force microscopy (AFM). The images generated can be collected in free air and at room temperature allowing for very open architecture to accept a wide range of samples. At the scale lengths with this speed there are a vast number of studies that can be carried out. While an extensive range of studies have been carried out using variants of the technique developed here the low cost, compact, and high-speed nature of the technology reported here permit new studies which have far higher statistical confidences associated with them. 
Type Of Material Technology assay or reagent 
Year Produced 2017 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact A key component of this technology in life sciences that can be investigated at this length scale is DNA. By using DNA associated proteins, CRISPR, as a nanoparticle it is possible to map genetic material. This can be immediately used for diagnostics of cancer related tissues or in leukemia related drug responses. In other fields, such as power generation or aeroscapce, the tool can be used to evaluate the effects of material fatigue and corrosion. By assessing the performance of high-grade metals, such as steel, it can inform industry in predicting lifetimes and proposing improvements of materials found in their critical infrastructure. Furthermore, the technology has a wide variety of potential in surface analysis of living material. As the technique can be done in normal ambient conditions and in liquid, imaging can be done on living materials such as cell surfaces or bacteria. 
URL http://www.tinyurl.com/highspeedAFM
 
Description Partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University 
Organisation Virginia Commonwealth University
Country United States 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution An instrument developed by our research team within the University of Bristol was taken over to Virginia Commonwealth University to be the focus of a series of experiments investigating their samples of genetic material. Some of these experiments had high impact results. Further to this, we worked with them to process data and contribute to the writing of the paper that followed.
Collaborator Contribution The partners in this collaboration use their expertise to prepare samples and helped direct the focus of the experiments. They hosted our research team in their labs. In addition, they provided additional experimentalists during experiment. They played a major part too in the writing of the paper and the submission process.
Impact Published work. Future work is intended to be carried out to which may lead to further outputs.
Start Year 2016
 
Title OPU based high-speed contact mode atomic force microscope and software 
Description As part of the investigation into optical pickups for nanoscale dynamics an instrument was developed to make novel measurements. This instrument is in a late development stage but is not a commercial product that can be bought of the shelf. However, there have been a number of technical designs and software created to realise this instrument. 
Type Of Technology New/Improved Technique/Technology 
Year Produced 2018 
Impact Making this technology available has a number of impacts as outlined elsewhere in this report. The benefits to making it a reliable prototype means that a greater number of impactful studies can be carried out. The impact of these studies being carried out may result in drawing more attention to the developed instrumentation and lead to higher demand for it. Overall, this will most likely impact the researchers conducting the studies and then those who are impacted by the findings thereafter. 
 
Company Name Bristol Nanodynamics 
Description 74909 - Other professional, scientific and technical activities not elsewhere classified. Focuses of the company include: nanoscale positioning and dynamic measurements in material analysis and life sciences. 
Year Established 2015 
Impact Research carried out associated to this award has lead to strategic development of the named company. Resultant work has been done by the company to support filing of IP between the University of Bristol, Virginia Commonwealth University and New York University. This has the draft title subject to change of "SYSTEM, METHOD, COMPUTER-ACCESSIBLE MEDIUM AND APPARATUS FOR DNA MAPPING". Further information may be added pending review.
 
Description Exploration of nanoscale datasets to the public with virtual reality and immersive technologies delivered to artists, small businesses and museum staff. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact The event was hosted in the Bristol VR lab in conjunction with 'We the Curious' (formally @Bristol) and the Jean Golding Institute. The focus of the meeting was to explore the difficulties found in communicating complex datasets to other researchers and the general public. The talk, focused on exploration of the nanoscale, sparked fascination in people from a wide range of fields from artist and gamers to scientists and entrepreneurs.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL https://bristolvrlab.com/blog/jgi/