We demonstrate for the first time the ability to automatically plan and execute construction tasks for patterns of nanoparticles with small diameters, on the order of 10 nm. A planner generates a sequence of collision-free straight-line motions that converts the initial, random pattern into the desired one. The motions are executed in a software-compensated AFM (Veeco AutoProbe-R) under control of our PCS software.
A video simulation is available by clicking below. It demonstrates the construction of a triangular structure with 15 nm Au nanoparticles on mica coated with poly-L-lysine. The planner decomposes long motions into shorter ones, and tests for initial and final particle positions by using a “butterfly” search, i.e., a series of orthogonal moves near the expected positions of the particles. The actual motions are adjusted on the basis of the measured particle positions. The actual trajectories, including the butterfly searches, are shown in red as they occur. The small window near the top of the image is used as a tracking window to measure drift; the measured drift is fed into a Kalman filter. Creep and hysteresis compensation is achieved by a feedforward approach involving a Prandtl-Ishlinskii operator. After all the motions are done, we re-scan the image to show the particles in their final positions.
References: A. A. G. Requicha, D. J. Arbuckle, B. Mokaberi and J. Yun, “Algorithms and software for nanomanipulation with Atomic Force Microscopes“, Int’l J. Robotics Research, Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 512-522, April 2009.
B. Mokaberi, J. Yun, M. Wang and A. A. G. Requicha, “Automated nanomanipulation with atomic force microscopes“, Proc. IEEE Int’l Conf. on Robotics & Automation (ICRA ’07), Rome, Italy, pp. 1406-1412, April 10-14, 2007.
B. Mokaberi and A. A. G. Requicha, “Compensation of scanner creep and hysteresis for AFM nanomanipulation“, IEEE Trans. on Automation Science & Engineering, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp.197-206, April 2008.
B. Mokaberi and A. A. G. Requicha, “Drift compensation for automatic nanomanipulation with scanning probe microscopes“, IEEE Trans. on Automation Science & Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 199-207, July 2006.
Download Video. This is a .avi file about 17.5 MB long.
