Chemical News

All eight are built around one core, the award winning NTegra, a universal platform for state-of-the-art scanning probe measurements and analytical integration. A researcher can start with NTegra and add capabilities, year-by-year as his/her group grows or research expands. Alternatively, a facility can buy one NTegra base to be used by multiple departments, with each group buying the necessary components targeted at their specific applications.

Purposefully engineered with open architecture in its hardware, software, and signal integration, NTegra uniquely integrates with other analytical instruments including spectrometers, ultramicrotomes, and optical microscopes. Like a child’s “Transformer” toy, the NTegra readily morphs into a new, application specific configuration.

NT -MDT is unique in the breadth and depth of its product offering: no other company in the industry provides this extensive an SPM line based on only one master controller and one software program.

Four members of the new line will be featured at the American Chemical Society Fall meeting (August 29-Sept 1, Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC.): NTegra Prima, Therma, Maximus, and Spectra.

NTegra Prima is the entry level system. Targeted specifically to the materials science and nanotech markets, in its full-blown configuration, it can do over 40 different measurements to characterize electrical, physical, and magnetic properties of surfaces. It features the quietest closed-loop sensors in the industry, critical for the precise positioning necessary for working at the atomic scale.

NTegra Therma breaks new ground for thermal stability. Special “smart” algorithms ramp the temperature to user-determined values with minimal overshoot (0.5C). Its unique CopperHead heating stage reduces thermal drift to less than 15nm/C. When scanning by probe, NTegra Therma maintains stability to +/- 0.01C from room temperature to 300C and when scanning by sample, +/- 0.005C over the range from -30C to 80C or room temperature to 150C.

Based on its earlier Solver LS, NT-MDT was the first microscope company to make High Throughput Combinatorial Microscopy (HTCM) commercially available. NTegra Maximus is the next generation. With a high-precision rotating/linear stage and mark-and-find algorithms, it allows a researcher to identify locations for various polymer compositions, biotech samples, or, in production, a technician to identify test locations on optical lenses or magnetic hard drives, then program a full test routine and walk away. NTegra Maximus will return to each location, automatically taking and storing both video and AFM images then conducting the desired series of measurements, reporting all data in an Excel compatible spreadsheet for later statistical analysis.

NTegra Spectra represents the ultimate in the new wave of integrated microscopies by combining AFM with optical, laser scanning confocal, and nearfield scanning microscopy. It also takes the next step into microscopy/spectroscopy with a fully automated, integrated Raman spectrometer, to provide chemical as well as imaging information to elucidate critical structure:function relationships.

Scanning probe microscopy encompasses a family of surface measurement and analysis techniques and is the instrument of choice for new nanotechnology applications. The SPM “feels” the surface by means of a special, cantilever-mounted probe. The name of each technique in the family is derived from the probe-surface interaction. For instance, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) senses and maps the tiny atomic attractions and repulsions between the tip and the surface while Magnetic Force Microscopy (MFM) senses and maps the magnetic interactions. SPMs can image and quantify the following surface characteristics: adhesion, friction, viscoelasticity (including Young’s modulus), magnetic domains, spreading resistance, voltage, capacitance, thermal response (Scanning Kelvin Probe Microscopy), and scanning tunneling energy. Depending on the technique, these measurements can be made in air, liquid, or under external magnetic fields.

NanoTech-America (NTA) is the proud National Distributor for the full line of scanning probe microscopes from NT-MDT. With two applications lab and a large national sales staff, they provide full service support for these state-of-the art microscopes.