CombiScope

The HORIBA CombiScope is an integrated platform combining atomic force microscopy (AFM) with a high-performance optical microscopy system in a single instrument, designed for correlative nanoscale and microscale characterization of the same sample region. The CombiScope is built on the concept that AFM and optical microscopy provide complementary information: AFM delivers nanometer-resolution topography, surface roughness, and mechanical property maps, while optical microscopy provides fast wide-field imaging for context, particle identification, and spectroscopic information through hyperspectral Raman imaging, fluorescence imaging, or photoluminescence mapping. By combining both modalities in one instrument with co-registered fields of view, the CombiScope allows researchers to first locate a feature of interest by optical imaging, then zoom in with AFM to characterize it at the nanoscale, and then combine the measurements in a single dataset. The CombiScope is designed to be adaptable to different optical configurations: it can be paired with HORIBA’s confocal Raman spectrometers (LabRAM series) to combine Raman spectroscopy with AFM (sometimes called AFM-Raman or TERS-capable setup), or with fluorescence setups for biological samples. The AFM head is designed for compatibility with inverted or upright optical microscopes. Key applications include: correlative AFM-Raman mapping of composite polymer films and carbon nanotube networks, co-localized AFM-fluorescence imaging of protein complexes on cell membranes, and nanomechanical mapping of biological specimens alongside optical imaging. NewRoad provides the HORIBA CombiScope in Israel for materials science, polymer physics, and cell biology research groups needing integrated AFM + optical characterization.