A significant step has been taken towards a universal standard for automated scientific experiments. Yu Liu, Utkarsh Pratiush, and Sergei Kalinin, from AE-SPM group has achieved a new milestone in their mission to create a standardized interface for Scanning Probe Microscopes (SPMs).
In a successful collaboration, the AE-SPM team worked with Marcos Penedo García from EPFL (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne). Together, they successfully operated their advanced automated workflow on the OpenSPM, an open-source SPM controller designed and built by García.
Using a technique called Multi-objective Bayesian Optimization (MOBO), the team was able to automatically optimize the microscope’s tapping mode on this third-party hardware. This marks the first time their AESPM software library has been successfully implemented on a controller from a different vendor.
“The ultimate goal is to promote this standard to all major SPM vendors,” the team explained, envisioning a future where “any published intelligent automated experiment workflows can be run on any instruments without any changes!” This achievement brings that future one step closer to reality, paving the way for more reproducible and accessible nanotechnology research worldwide.