ACCESSORIES
The 3-D ultrathin piezo-electric scanning stage from Nanonics (Jerusalem, Israel) allows simultaneous lateral and axial sample scanning as well as providing coarse inertial positioning. The device should allow integration of all forms of scanning probe microscopes into conventional far-field optical microscopes. This square scanning stage, which sits on the stage of any optical microscope, is just 7 mm high and has a 24-mm central clear aperture; inside is a planar folded piezo flexure-scan mechanism that allows sub-angstrom ¥extensions of u¥to 50 µm while permitting fine x,y scanning over the same range. Introduced at PittCon in March 1995, the scanner simplifies optical sectioning for applications such as confocal, nonlinear optical, and CCD imaging microscopies, and the combination of x, y, and ¥precision move ments also al lows the scanner to be used in optical tweezer systems.