We get to talk to a huge range of academics and industry workers who use AFM. A week rarely goes by without someone somewhere telling us about a new way in which they are using AFM. The range and possibilities that AFM offer is astounding.
Equally, because the fields in which AFM is used are disparate, we know there can be missing chunks of knowledge and expertise about the instrument. Sharing these more fully could speed up and revolutionise research undertaken using AFM.
It’s more than a little tongue-in-cheek to declare this post a ‘One-Stop Shop for AFM Resources’ but it is a start – and one we’d love to see grow over the coming months and years. Included below are a list of places and sites that members of the AFM Community regularly use to aid them in their work.
We would love to hear where YOU go for information and support on all things AFM to either add to this post or create a follow-up one.
Open-Source Software Sharing for AFM
Github is an open-source software-sharing platform. Used by over 4 million organisations and 73 million developers there’s A LOT of software to access there.
Within the Software for AFM and SPM data analysis dedicated community hub, on Github, there are a number of different programs freely available to use. From an AFM image analysis program to enable you to batch process data and obtain stats from images, through to Python libraries for reading common AFM file formats and handling Scanning Probe Microscopy images as well as MatLab coding for AFM raw data post-processing, there are lots there to help with your AFM related work.
We’re huge fans of the platform, in fact, we wrote a blog about the Collaborative Potential of Github last year, which you might find interesting to read about why other scientists use Github. It would be wonderful to see even more people using it and sharing their software developments in the world of AFM…
Fellow AFM Scientists
Social Media - Lots of people post directly to Twitter or LinkedIn highlighting a paper or a ‘thought’. For example, Serghei Kalinin is an AFMer who posts 400-500 word ‘monologues’ on a scientific topic, although not necessarily all AFM related (we liked his latest on the importance of scientific communities!). One of the best community resources freely available is to follow AFM scientists on Twitter and LinkedIn, to provide up-to-date thoughts, papers, events etc in your feed.
Google Images – If you’re imaging material for the first time it can be useful to see if someone else has already imaged it. Comparing results can help identify if what you’re looking at looks right. This is useful if you don’t have the experience to detect artefacts in samples you haven’t imaged previously.
Publications – This is an obvious one but worth mentioning nonetheless. There are a number of places you find relevant publications including Google Scholar, Twitter and ResearchGate, journal websites and Web of Science.
Blogs & YouTube
Dalia Yablon’s blog for Microscopy and Analysis is a useful place to go for information and insight on individual topics related to AFM.
AFM Help is a site that was set up by Peter Eaton who has also co-written a book on AFM. It is packed with helpful AFM information including links to help understand the instrument and the images obtained with it.
Our own blog covers a wide range of tips and tricks to help and support AFM Imaging, including our perennially popular 5 top tips for effective AFM imaging: a beginners guide. From How to guides, to interviews with AFM Researchers, information on conferences and AFM Knowhow the NuNano blog has lots to offer.
YouTube – If the written word isn’t your thing, there are heaps of videos on AFM on YouTube – some by enthusiasts and some by AFM vendors. Tell us your favourites and we’ll share a selection on our website and via our social media channels.
AFM User Forums
The Asylum User forum can be a great place to ask questions and receive answers from other people signed up to the community. You have to have an account but your questions don’t have to be specific to products you have purchased from Asylum.
AFM Community Group – LinkedIn
This is something run by us. Whilst the content we predominantly share are about interesting AFM related jobs, conferences, workshops and publications, we warmly welcome people raising questions and encourage participants to use the space to share their own knowledge and expertise on the subject. We want this to be a space for all kinds of support and certainly wouldn’t restrict the discussion to our own particular products.
As per the LinkedIn community group, this is also run by us and as with the LinkedIn group we use the account to share information on AFM related jobs, conferences, papers and any interesting workshops etc. Using hashtags such as #AFM #Microscopy #AtomicForceMicroscopy are also great ways to find interesting content.
AFM Webinars and Workshops
Manufacturer’s websites such as Park, Asylum, Nanosurf have a lots of interesting material on their websites, including libraries of previous and upcoming webinars.
Park Systems – Park Systems run regular webinars and workshops on AFM such as Effective Use of AFM by Researchers series. Whilst some of these relate specifically to Park Systems products others are more generic. You can sign up to join live and/or watch sessions in their archive on YouTube.
Asylum Research – Asylum Research also run AFM Webinar series. Similarly to Park you can sign up to join live and/or receive a recording of the session once it has run.
NanoSurf – NanoSurf also run webinars and masterclasses – their latest is already over half way through now but worth a look.
It’s not only AFM manufacturers that provide training and information on AFM:
SurfaceChar - Dalia Yablon is launching her first virtual AFM class May 22-24 (4hrs/day). Check out the website and contact her directly for more details and to join the class.
There are many other places where AFM information can be found – in particular books and conferences are often extraordinarily useful spaces through which you can deepen and expand your knowledge. We’ll be back with more specific content on these areas in the coming months.
With special thanks to all those members of the AFM Community who contributed their feedback on useful resources including Héctor Corte-León, Horacio V Guzman, Kerstin Neuhaus, Dalia Yablon and Lavanya Sureshbabu.
Don’t forget to share where you get information and support for all things AFM, including sample preparation, experimental setup, cantilever types, and any advanced AFM imaging modes, AFM image processing methodologies, for instance, MATLAB codes, Python codes, and new ideas. Contact us community@nunano.com
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