Enriching the Field of Materials Science through Open Access Tutorials

"A Masdar Institute PhD student is advancing the ability of students and scientists in materials science to capitalize on atomic force microscopy (AFM) to image and characterize materials at the nanometer scale by developing specialized video content and tutorials that are being offered on an open access channel.

Tuza Olukan has developed an AFM YouTube channel to serve as a virtual classroom and reference that researchers anywhere in the world can refer to when calibrating their experiments. There, users can access a variety of videos Olukan has developed that guide AFM users through various research techniques and standards.

Working in nanotechnology requires a deep understanding of the chemical composition and structure of any given material at the nanoscale – a scale that is approximately one hundred thousand times smaller than the width of a single strand of human hair. AFM is an ideal tool for the required imaging, analysis and characterization of materials at the nanoscale, which it does by feeling the atomic forces between the microscope’s sharp tip and the material’s surface, creating contrast maps of the material’s surface topography. However, the expert-level use of AFM required for this type of research takes considerable time and commitment to develop, which is why Olukan developed the channel."