This facility consists of a Nanoscope III operating station, a Dimension 3100 scanning probe microscope on an air lifted isolation table, and a Multimode scanning probe microscope, all of which are from Digital Instruments/VEECO. This is a shared facility funded by an NSF Major Research Instrumentation award (PI: Tang). It is used extensively for studies of nanoscale materials and devices, and in particular biological materials. Additional functionalities have been added to an existing AFM facility previously funded by the NSF major instrumentation grant. The additional instruments include a Bioscope BIO2-N Precision stage, an inverted fluorescence microscope with a TIRF lens, and an ORCA-285 regular Fluorescence Camera. These added components allow for simultaneous imaging of live cells by AFM and fluorescence microscopy, as well as direct probe of cell mechanics and cell adhesion. The facility will benefit all participants of the Seed, or other investigators of similar interest. Only properly trained persons are allowed to use the facility. All new users must be trained by the facility manager (currently Dr. Guanglai Li). A cost recovery mechanism has not been established.
The facility has no instruments.