title: Reconstruction of atomic force microscopy image by using nanofabricated tip characterizer toward the actual sample surface topography.
abstract: The atomic force microscopy (AFM) image is a dilation of the sample surface topography due to the finite-sized AFM tip. We accurately estimated the tip apex shape with a nanofabricated Si tip characterizer and applied the estimated tip shape function to a dilation-erosion algorithm for image reconstruction. The reconstructed images from the original AFM images attained with different AFM tips show consistent surface features and closely match the high-resolution field-emission scanning electron microscope image. The results demonstrate the reliability of our method and suggest the importance of AFM image reconstruction for a variety of technologies requiring new strategies of measuring, interpreting, manipulating, and positioning in the submicrometer and nanometer range.
authors.affiliation: International Center for Young Scientists, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0047, Japan. xu.mingsheng@nims.go.jp
authors.forename: Mingsheng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fujita
authors.forename: Keiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Onishi