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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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I will introduce a novel type of three-dimensional super-resolution scanning probe microscopy specifically designed for imaging soft nanostructures. The microscope uses optically trapped nanoparticles as scanning probe sensors to explore porous soft nanostructures, such as biopolymer networks. The thermal motion of the probe particle is used as a “natural scanner” for local imaging, while larger volumes are explored by moving the sample. So called “Thermal Noise Imaging” is currently the most sensitive method to mechanically probe soft matter structure on the nanometer scale. But Thermal Noise Imaging does not only resolve structure, the images contain a wealth of information about their mechanics and other important parameters which are not accessible by other types of super-resolution microscopes.
[1] Bartsch, T. F., Kochanczyk, M. D., Lissek, E. N., Lange, J. R. & Florin, E.-L. Nanoscopic imaging of thick heterogeneous soft-matter structures in aqueous solution. Nature Communications 7, 12729 (2016). [2] Keidel, A., Bartsch, T. F. & Florin, E.-L. Direct observation of intermediate states in model membrane fusion. Scientific Reports 6, 23691 (2016). [3] Super-resolution MicroscopeBuilds 3D Images by Mapping Negative Space, http://news.utexas.edu/2016/09/06/new-microscope-builds-3d-images-by-mapping-negativespace
