Micromechanical
sensing of magnetic force was used to detect nuclear magnetic
resonance with exceptional sensitivity and spatial resolution. The
results suggest that magnetic force sensing is a viable approach for
enhancing the sensitivity and spatial resolution of nuclear magnetic
resonance microimaging. The envisioned "magnetic resonance force
microscope" would have elemental identification capability and be able
to determine nuclear positions with subangstrom spatial resolution in
three dimensions. Such an instrument, if it could be built, would
represent a revolutionary advance for the field of magnetic resonance
imaging and would greatly facilitate the determination of molecular
structures.
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A focused laser
beam propagates through the transparent PMMA sample and heats the
optically absorbing AFM tip. The heated tip softens the substrate, and
the local tip pressure creates an indentation. The sample is placed on
a precision air-bearing spindle to allow for sample rotation. Here is
a schematic figure of ths process.
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A paper about this technique has been published in Applied Physics Letters (H.J. Mamin and D. Rugar, Appl. Phys. Lett. 61 (8), 1003 (1992)).
Scientists at IBM's Almaden Research
Center have demonstrated new multilevel optical disks that are capable
of huge gains in optical disk data storage capacities.
Here is some more information and here is a
short animation (73 kB) showing the principles.
As the areal
density of magnetic recording increases, the radial spacing of the
circular tracks onto which are written the magnetic bits
decreases. This requires improved control of the servo system which
maintains the recording sensor over the center of the track. A
possible solution is the use of a microactuator, located near the
recording sensor, which has sufficiently rapid response and sufficient
force to move the magnetic recording head carrier.
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By means of smaller wavelength
and new data coding techniques, the invention of the blue laser allows
the storage of up to five times more data on a optical disk than with
a conventional infrared laser.
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