Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33452253›Full record

ArticleNature communications2021

Massively parallel cantilever-free atomic force microscopy.

Wenhan Cao, Nourin Alsharif, Zhongjie Huang, Alice E White, YuHuang Wang, Keith A Brown

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Probe-Based Mechanical Data Storage on Polymers Made by Inverse Vulcanization.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025
    Article
  3. Review
  4. Review
  5. Article
  6. Review
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Wenhan CaoDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-1398-1154
Nourin AlsharifDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
Zhongjie HuangDepartment of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-6739-1577
Alice E WhiteDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-7594-2524
YuHuang WangDepartment of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-5664-1849
Keith A BrownDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA. brownka@bu.edu.ORCID 0000-0002-2379-2018

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Resolution and field-of-view often represent a fundamental tradeoff in microscopy. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), in which a cantilevered probe deflects under the influence of local forces as it scans across a substrate, is a key example of this tradeoff with high resolution imaging being largely limited to small areas. Despite the tremendous impact of AFM in fields including materials science, biology, and surface science, the limitation in imaging area has remained a key barrier to studying samples with intricate hierarchical structure. Here, we show that massively parallel AFM with >1000 probes is possible through the combination of a cantilever-free probe architecture and a scalable optical method for detecting probe-sample contact. Specifically, optically reflective conical probes on a comparatively compliant film are found to comprise a distributed optical lever that translates probe motion into an optical signal that provides sub-10 nm vertical precision. The scalability of this approach makes it well suited for imaging applications that require high resolution over large areas.

Identifiers

PMID33452253
PMCPMC7810748

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.