title: The effect of drive frequency and set point amplitude on tapping forces in atomic force microscopy: simulation and experiment.
abstract: In tapping mode atomic force microscopy (AFM), a sharp probe tip attached to an oscillating cantilever is allowed to intermittently strike a surface. By raster scanning the probe while monitoring the oscillation amplitude of the cantilever via a feedback loop, topographical maps of surfaces with nanoscale resolution can be acquired. While numerous studies have employed numerical simulations to elucidate the time-resolved tapping force between the probe tip and surface, until recent technique developments, specific read-outs from such models could not be experimentally verified. In this study, we explore, via numerical simulation, the impact of imaging parameters, i.e. set point ratio and drive frequency as a function of resonance, on time-varying tip-sample force interactions, which are directly compared to reconstructed tapping forces from real AFM experiments. As the AFM model contains a feedback loop allowing for the simulation of the entire scanning process, we further explore the impact that various tip-sample force have on the entire imaging process.
authors.affiliation: The C Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry, West Virginia University, 217 Clark Hall, PO Box 6045, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA. justin.legleiter@mail.wvu.edu
authors.forename: Justin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Legleiter
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force / Q000379:methods*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D009991:Oscillometry / Q000379:methods*; D014732:Vibration