Controlled manipulation of thiol-functionalised gold nanoparticles on Si (100) by dynamic force microscopy

Abstract

Mechanical control of nanometer size objects and the dynamic behaviour at this length scale are subjects of growing interest. One promising approach to operate and perform quantitative measurements in this regime is to use dissipation processes in atomic force microscopy. We obtained a controlled manipulation of thiol-functionalised gold nanoparticles on silicon dioxide and a measurement of the energy depinning threshold as a function of nanoparticles characteristics by using the AFM microscope in a particular dynamic regime. Detailed procedure and preliminary results will be described in this contribution. © 2008 IOP Publishing Ltd.