A novel method to remove impulse noise from atomic force microscopy images based on Bayesian compressed sensing.

A novel method based on Bayesian compressed sensing is proposed to remove impulse noise from atomic force microscopy (AFM) images. The image denoising problem is transformed into a compressed sensing imaging problem of the AFM. First, two different ways, including interval approach and self-comparison approach, are applied to identify the noisy pixels. An undersampled AFM image is generated by removing the noisy pixels from the image. Second, a series of measurement matrices, all of which are identity matrices with some rows removed, are constructed by recording the position of the noise-free pixels. Third, the Bayesian compressed sensing reconstruction algorithm is applied to recover the image. Different from traditional compressed sensing reconstruction methods in AFM, each row of the AFM image is reconstructed separately in the proposed method, which will not reduce the quality of the reconstructed image. The denoising experiments are conducted to demonstrate that the proposed method can remove the impulse noise from AFM images while preserving the details of the image. Compared with other methods, the proposed method is robust and its performance is not influenced by the noise density in a certain range.

Multi-characterization of LiCoO2 cathode films using advanced AFM-based techniques with high resolution.

ABSTARCT: The thin film Li-ion batteries have been extensively used in micro-electronic devices due to their miniaturization, high capacity density and environmental friendliness, etc. In order to further prolong the lifetime of the film batteries, one of important tasks is to explore the aging mechanisms of the cathode films. In this paper, we especially focused on the multi-characterization of the LiCoO2 film in nanoscale, which is carried out by combining advanced AFM-based techniques with capacity measurement. The surface morphology, contact stiffness as well as surface potential were measured by amplitude modulation-frequency modulation (AM-FM) and kelvin probe force microscope (KPFM), respectively. Remarkable changes after different numbers of charge/discharge cycling were observed and the intrinsic reasons of them were discussed in detail. To acknowledge the relationship with these microscopic changes, the macro-capacity of the thin films was also measured by the galvanostatic charge/discharge method. These comprehensive results would provide a deep insight into the fading mechanism of the cathode film, being helpful for the design and selection of the cathode film materials for high performance batteries.

Cantilevered bimorph-based scanner for high speed atomic force microscopy with large scanning range.

A cantilevered bimorph-based resonance-mode scanner for high speed atomic force microscope (AFM) imaging is presented. The free end of the bimorph is used for mounting a sample stage and the other one of that is fixed on the top of a conventional single tube scanner. High speed scanning is realized with the bimorph-based scanner vibrating at resonant frequency driven by a sine wave voltage applied to one piezolayer of the bimorph, while slow scanning is performed by the tube scanner. The other piezolayer provides information on vibration amplitude and phase of the bimorph itself simultaneously, which is used for real-time data processing and image calibration. By adjusting the free length of the bimorph, the line scan rate can be preset ranging from several hundred hertz to several kilohertz, which would be beneficial for the observation of samples with different properties. Combined with a home-made AFM system and a commercially available data acquisition card, AFM images of various samples have been obtained, and as an example, images of the silicon grating taken at a line rate of 1.5 kHz with the scan size of 20 microm are given. By manually moving the sample of polished Al foil surface while scanning, the capability of dynamic imaging is demonstrated.

A highly sensitive and selective resonance scattering spectral assay for potassium ion based on aptamer and nanosilver aggregation reactions.

The 5nm nanosilver was prepared by the sodium borohydride procedure, using sodium citrate as a stabilizing reagent. The nanosilver particle was combined with the aptamer for K(+) to form aptamer-nanosilver complex that was stabile in pH 7.0 Na(2)HPO(4)-NaH(2)PO(4) buffer solutions and in the presence of high concentration of NaCl. In 85 degrees C water bath, K(+) interacted with the aptamer to form very stable G-quadruplex that cannot stabilize the nanosilver particle. The uncombined nanosilver particles are aggregated to big particles in high concentration of NaCl, that led to the resonance scattering (RS) intensity at 470nm increased greatly. Under the selected conditions, the increased RS intensity (DeltaI) is linear to K(+) concentration in the range of 0.060-3350micromol/L, with a regression equation of DeltaI=0.177C+0.55, a correlation coefficient of 0.9964, and a detection limit of 0.006micromol/L K(+). The aptamer-nanosilver RS assay has been applied to determination of K(+) in serum and rain water, with satisfactory results.

An alternative flat scanner and micropositioning method for scanning probe microscope.

An alternative flat scanner used for combining a scanning probe microscope with an inverted optical microscope is presented. The scanner has a novel structure basically consisting of eight identical piezoelectric tubes, metal flexure beams, and one sample mount. Because of the specially designed structure, the scanner is able to carry a sample of more than 120 g during imaging. By applying voltages of ±150 V, scanning range of more than 30 µm in three dimensions can be achieved. To improve the reliability of the stick-slip motion, a new method for sample micropositioning is proposed by applying a pulsed voltage to the piezotubes to produce a motion in the z-axis. Reliable translation of the sample has been thus accomplished with the step length from ∼700 nm to 9 µm over a range of several millimeters. A homemade scanning probe microscope-inverted optical microscope system based on the scanner is described. Experimental results obtained with the system are shown.