Anasys nanoTA2 and SThM
Nanoscale Thermal Imaging and Analysis
The Anasys nanoTA2 and SThM adds extra capabilities to your AFM for scanning thermal microscopy and nano thermal analysis. This system can be added to Anasys’ nanoIR2 and nanoIR2-FS systems or existing AFM, to give you three extra techniques:
- Scanning Thermal Microscopy (SThM): Temperature mapping with 0.1ºC resolution.
- Nano-Thermal Analysis (nano-TA): Sub-100 nm local thermal analysis.
- Heated Tip AFM (HT-AFM): Scanning probe measurements with a heated probe, for phase differentation.
Contact us for independent advice and a quote:
01223 422 269 or info@blue-scientific.com

Nano-Thermal Analysis (nanoTA)
Award-winning technique that uses unique ThermaLever™ probes to amp the sample’s temperature locally, to measure and map thermal transitions and other thermal properties.
nanoTA correlates excellently with bulk techniques such as DSC and TMA, delivering accurate thermal analysis at extremely high resolution.
How it Works
The probe is moved to the point of interest. The temperature of the tip is then ramped linearly with time, and the degree of bending is monitored. At the point of phase transition, the material beneath the tip softens and the probe penetrates the sample.

Nanoscale thermal analysis of a PS-PMMA blend on glass. The scan shows indents in the surface caused by temperature ramps. The data from the PS (red) and PMMA (green) clearly differentiate the two materials. There is also a thin film of PS on PMMA (blue) showing the initial penetration of the PS followed by the PMMA melting.
Scanning Thermal Microscopy (SThM)
With SThM you can map local temperature mapping to 0.1°C at sub-100 nm resolution.
The example below is a scanning thermal microscopy image of a 4µm x 8µm section of a carbon fibre–epoxy composite sample. The height image (top) shows a number of carbon fibres, while the SThM image (bottom) shows the change in probe temperature on the two materials due to variation in thermal conductivity.
Heated Tip AFM (HT-AFM)
By heating the probe while taking scanning probe measurements, this technique can differentiate between phases.
The example below shows topography on the top row and phase on the bottom row for a PS-PP blend. The intermittent contact images are 3 μm x 1.5 μm. The probe temperature was changed from room temperature (left) to 160 º C (centre) to 230 º C (right). As the temperature increases, the PS becomes more visible in the phase image, as the probe passes the glass transition temperature of the PS. At a higher temperature, the entire surface softens, shown by the decreased contrast in the phase image.

PS-PP Blend – Left: Room temperature; Centre: 160ºC; Right: 230ºC
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