NEW WAYS TO DETERMINE VERY SMALL MASSES AND FORCES
Richard Davis
Abstract:
The goal of this paper is to draw attention to mass determinations at nominal values well below 1 µg. Traceability to the International System of Units (SI) is challenging because mass standards having nominal values less than 1 mg are difficult to produce and thus not commonly available. We limit this burgeoning subject to only three examples: the calibration of atomic force microscopes with respect to calibrated dead-weights; the confirmation that a NEMS device has attogram resolution; and the direct determination of the gravitational mass of the neutron. We do not mention the important topic of magnetic resonance force microscopy because the applications to mass measurement are less direct than in the examples that have been chosen.
