Parallel imaging/manipulation force microscopy

Conventional atomic force microscope nanomanipulation is inefficient because of the serial imaging/manipulation operation. We present here a parallel imaging/manipulation force microscope (PIMM) to improve manipulation efficiency. The PIMM is equipped with two individually actuated cantilevers with protrudent tips. One cantilever acts as an imaging sensor by scanning nano-objects and tip of the other cantilever that is used as a manipulating tool. Two manipulation schemes were introduced to fulfill parallel imaging/manipulation tasks with normal and high-speed image scan, respectively. Performance of the PIMM was validated by the parallel imaging/manipulation of nanoparticles to form a nanopattern with a commonly used pushing operation.