WFU Physics Colloquium

TITLE: Scanning Probe Microscopy: From Living Bacteria to Quantum Electrons

SPEAKER: Professor Katherine Aidala,

TIME: Thursday Oct. 11, 2007 at 4:00 PM

PLACE: George P. Williams, Jr. Lecture Hall, (Olin 101)

The scanning probe microscope is a versatile tool in nanoscience. Fundamentally, it allows a researcher to bring a small (~10nm) probe close to or in contact with a sample of interest. Many types of information can be obtained from this interaction. I will give an overview of the scanning probe microscope and focus on two examples from my research: living bacteria and cryogenically cooled electrons in a two-dimensional electron gas. We are imaging healthy E. coli biofilms in their native state and biofilms infected with bacterial predator Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus, measuring the stiffness, adhesion, and shape of the cells. On a cryogenic SPM, we imaged used scanned gate microscopy to image coherent magnetic focusing of electrons, revealing the semi-circular cyclotron orbits and observing interference between the multiple paths of the electrons.