Rapid means of characterizing and detecting virus particles are very important for a wide variety of applications. We have used vaccinia virus, a member of the Poxviridae virus family and the basis of the smallpox vaccine, as the test case and characterized these particles using atomic force microscopy and micron-scale cantilever beams, with the long-term goal of developing devices for the dire...

Infrared absorption spectroscopy is a powerful analytical tool that enables the identification of molecular species. The sensitivity this technique, strongly limited by small cross-section vibration, can be greatly improved resonant interaction with nano-antennas via surface-enhanced infrared (SEIRA) mechanism. However, most examples SEIRA concern solid-state layers adsorbed on nano-antennas, w...

the presence of van der waals (vdw) force can lead to mechanical instability in freestanding nano-scale actuators. most of the previous researches in this area have exclusively focused on modeling the instability in actuators with one actuating components. while, less attention has been paid to actuators consist of two actuating components. herein, the effect of the vdw force on the instability...

In the application of a micro-/nano-mechanical resonator, the position of an accreted particle and the resonant frequencies are measured by two different physical systems. Detecting the particle position sometimes can be extremely difficult or even impossible, especially when the particle is as small as an atom or a molecule. Using the resonant frequencies to determine the mass and position of ...

Here, we report a new approach of glucose measurement by using a multilayer modified microcantilever. Glucose oxidase (GOx)/ polyethyleneimine (PEI) multilayer modified microcantilever underwent bending when it was exposed to glucose solutions. The magnitudes of bending were proportional to the concentrations of glucose. This technique provides a new platform for enzyme functionalized cantileve...