**Author details**

change by etching effect might have affected the adhesion force, which is largely dependent

Micro-Nano Mechatronics — New Trends in Material, Measurement, Control, Manufacturing and Their Applications in

**Figure 22.** laser scanning microscope images of CIIR sheets after argon plasma treatment with 200 W at a gas pres‐

In this work, we tried to clarify the change in surface mechanical properties of CIIR sheet after the plasma treatments. In order to evaluate the change in Youngʹs modulus of CIIR sheet surface, the top 50 μm thickness of a plasma‐treated CIIR sheet was cut away to avoid the bulk property. The Youngʹs modulus measurements with nano‐indenter showed the clear differ‐ ence between the surface and bulk elastic modulus of CIIR rubber after plasma treatment, indicating the success of surface modification without changing bulk property. In addition, it was shown that the plasma treatment with Ar gas increased theYoung's modulus of CIIRsheet surface from 38 MPa to 236.4 MPa. And also, surface roughness of CIIR rubber has changed to rougher with both oxygen and argon gas plasma treatments. These changes in Young's modulus and roughness at the surface of CIIR sheet are considered to be the main reasons for the plasma‐assisted reduction of adhesion force between stainless‐steel ball (SUS 440C, JIS)

on the contact geometry and surface topography [16].

Biomedical Engineering

238

sure of 30 Pa for treatment times of (a) 1, (b) 5, (c) 10, and (d)15 min.

and CIIR sheet.

Noritsugu Umehara, Takayuki Tokoroyama and Hiroyuki Kousaka

Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Nagoya University, Japan

## **References**

	- [12] Yago K, Kuroyama M, Otori K, Hirayama T, Ogawa Y, Aoto H. A Study on Adsorp‐ tion of Calcitonin Preparation on Syringes. Journal of the Nippon Hospital Pharma‐ cists Association 2000; 273‐279.

**Chapter 12**

**Micro-Nano Materials Characterization and Inspection**

The individual surface atoms of flat samples could be made visible in real space until the introduction of the Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) in 1981 by Binnig, Rohrer, Gerber, and Weibel [1]. This powerful instrument has provided a breakthrough in our possibilities to investigate matter on the atomic scale. Within one year of its invention, the STM has helped to solve one of the most intriguing problems in surface science: the structure of the Si surface. Because of theirfabulous contribution, G. Binnig and H. Rohrer were rewarded with the Nobel Prize in physics in 1986. A huge number of conductors and semiconductors have been investigated on the atomic scale and marvelous images of this world of atoms have been created within the first few years after the inception of the STM. Today, the STM is an

Despite the great success of the STM, it has a serious limitation. The STM requires electrical conduction of the sample material, because the STM needs the tunneling current which is flowing between a pin contact with or very nearing the sample. Thus, the STM can only image electrically conductive samples, which limits its application to imaging metals and semiconductors. But even conductors except for a few special materials, like highly oriented pyrolytic graphite can not be studied in ambient conditions by STM but have to be investigated in an ultra‐high vacuum (UHV). In ambient conditions, the surface layer of solids constantly changes by adsorption and desorption of atoms and molecules. UHV is required for clean and well defined surfaces. Taking the above condition into account, Binnig speculated the atomic force between the tip and sample, the Atomic Force Micro‐ scope (AFM) [2, 3] was invented by him in 1986. Because electrical conductivity of the sample is not required in AFM, the AFM can image virtually any solid surface without the need for surface preparation. Consequently, thousands of AFMs are in use in universi‐

> © 2013 Ju; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2013 Ju; licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Yang Ju

**1. Introduction**

invaluable asset in the surface scientist's toolbox.

ties, public and industrial research laboratories all over the world.

