title: A procedure to determine the optimum imaging parameters for atomic/molecular resolution frequency modulation atomic force microscopy.
abstract: We propose a general procedure to determine the optimum imaging parameters (spring constant and oscillation amplitude) to obtain the optimum resolution in frequency modulation atomic force microscopy. We calculated the effective signal-to-noise ratio for various spring constants and oscillation amplitudes, based on the measurement of frequency shift and energy dissipation versus tip-sample distance curves, to find the optimum. We applied this procedure for imaging a lead phthalocyanine (PbPc) thin film on a MoS(2)(0001) substrate, and found that the optimum parameters were about 5 N/m and 20 nm, respectively. An improved signal-to-noise ratio was attained in a preliminary experiment using parameters which were close to the calculated optimum.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Science and Engineering, Kyoto University, Katsura, Kyoto 615-8510, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hosokawa
authors.forename: Kei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Noriaki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Oyabu
authors.forename: Kazumi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Matsushige
authors.forename: Hirofumi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yamada