Compositional mapping of surfaces in atomic force microscopy

We propose a method for mapping the composition of a surface by using an amplitude modulation atomic force microscope operated without tip-surface mechanical contact. The method consists in exciting the first two modes of the microcantilever. The nonlinear dynamics of the tip motion, the coupling of...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Rodríguez, Tomás R., García García, Ricardo
Formato: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2004
País:España
Recursos:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/23475
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/23475
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Atomic force microscopy
Mechanical contact
Signal processing
Surface phenomena
Descrição
Resumo:We propose a method for mapping the composition of a surface by using an amplitude modulation atomic force microscope operated without tip-surface mechanical contact. The method consists in exciting the first two modes of the microcantilever. The nonlinear dynamics of the tip motion, the coupling of its first two modes, and the sensitivity of the second mode to long-range attractive forces allows us to use this mode to probe compositional changes while the signal from the first mode is used to image the sample surface. We demonstrate that the second mode has a sensitivity to surface force variations below 10−11 N.