A procedure to determine the optimum imaging parameters for atomic/molecular resolution frequency modulation atomic force microscopy.
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.
Hosokawa
Yoshihiro
Y
Department of Electronic Science and Engineering, Kyoto University, Katsura, Kyoto 615-8510, Japan.
Kobayashi
Kei
K
Oyabu
Noriaki
N
Matsushige
Kazumi
K
Yamada
Hirofumi
H