Akiyama-Probe is based on a quartz tuning fork combined with a micromachined AFM cantilever. The great advantage of this novel AFM probe is that one can benefit from both the tuning fork’s extremely stable oscillation and the silicon AFM cantilever’s reasonable spring constant with one AFM probe.

Akiyama-Probe is equipped with a special version of the NANOSENSORS™ AdvancedTEC, a high-end sharp silicon AFM tip and has an excellent imaging capability on various samples with different properties, which is as high as that of a conventional optical lever system.

Akiyama-Probe requires neither optical detection, nor an external shaker. Akiyama-Probe occupies only a small volume above the sample. These features make it very attractive for creating a new generation of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) instruments.