VariPose -- v1.2 Enhancements

Following popular demand, VariPose v1.2 includes

Other enhancements:

the following enhancements, designed to provide

even more powerful modeling capabilities. Users will

·

Auto‑selection of skeleton joints

immediately notice that the head of the skeleton figure,

·

Improved mouse control of 3D mesh view

used for model manipulation, now has additional

·

Improved project creation and file handling

features such as ears and nose. Also, CAD objects may

·

Improved cropping of mesh model

be imported into the skeleton model space for accurate

·

Improved Zoom and Pan

positioning of the body.

·

Updated icon set and background

Introducing XSTREAM Hardware Acceleration

Electromagnetic Simulation Helps Optimize

Design of Sub-20 nm Optical Microscope

Near‑field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) has extended

because of the great challenges involved in building and

optical measurements past the diffraction limit, making it

testing optics at nanometer scales. Researchers at Portland State

possible for the first time to view objects and features in the

University led by Erik Sánchez, and funded by the NSF (IDBR

50 to 100 nanometer range. Recent research has demonstrated

#0500812) are overcoming this problem by using a commercial

that the use of apertureless probes can further improve spatial

finite different time domain electromagnetic simulator

resolution to below 25 nanometers. The next challenge is

(XFDTD) to analyze tip performance without the need to build

optimizing the tip design in order to strongly illuminate the

a physical model.

sample at distances from the aperture that are a hundreds

of times closer than

Recent advances in nanotechnology and nanoscience are

the dimension of the

highly dependent on our newly acquired ability to measure

wavelength of the light

and manipulate individual structures on the nanoscale.

SiO2

that is employed. Trial

A drawback of light microscopy is the fundamental limit

and error methods are

of the attainable spatial resolution dictated by the laws of

highly undesirable

diffraction at about 250 nanometers. This diffraction limit

arises from the fact that it is impossible to focus light to a spot

smaller than half its wavelength. The challenge of breaking

Figure 1: Transmission

this limit has led to the development of NSOM. The optical

electron micrograph

probes originally used in NSOM were created by pulling an

of a metal probe tip

optical fiber to a final diameter of 25‑100 nm, coating it with

coated with 10 nm

aluminum, and etching to provide a flat, circular endpoint,

of electron beam

and aperture. Unfortunately, only a tiny fraction of the light

grown Si02 to prevent

coupled into the fiber is emitted by the aperture because of

fluorescence quenching

by the metal.

(Continued on next page)

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