Ultrafast molecule sorting and delivery by atomic force microscopy. IBM research. A new nanoscale AFM method rapidly separatesboth very small numbers of molecules and also delivers them precisely onto surfaces with unprecedented control of 50 nm. This technique has the potential to improve medical lab tests and future nanoelectronic circuit manufacturing. When an electrical field is applied to the tip, molecules will slide up or down its surface at characteristic speeds. By modifying the tip's surface and varying the strength and duration of the electric field, different molecular species can be separated from each other within a few milliseconds, more than 1,000 times faster than today's methods. The AFM  molecule sorting and delivery technique has four stages:
A: After touching the AFM cantilever's tip to a droplet of dissolved molecules to be separated, an electric field is applied. This drives the molecules up the sides of the tip into a trench that serves as a reservoir on the cantilever.
B: Reversing the polarity of the electric field causes the most
mobile molecules to separate themselves from the group and move down the tip first. Each different molecular species forms its own "ring around the tip" according to the strength of the applied electric field and each molecule's unique mobility.
C: When a molecule band reaches the pointed end of the AFM tip, it is released onto the substrate.
D: Molecules with lower mobilities advance more slowly down the tip. By repositioning the AFM tip on the underlying surface between the releases of molecule bands, different molecular species can be physically sorted from a mixed solution. "Ultrafast molecule sorting and delivery by atomic force microscopy"  Kerem Unal, Jane Frommer and Wickramasinghe, Appl. Phys. Lett., May, 2006

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