title: Note: A novel atomic force microscope fast imaging approach: variable-speed scanning.
abstract: Imaging speed is one of the key factors limiting atomic force microscope's (AFM) wide applications. To improve its performance, a variable-speed scanning (VSS) method is designed in this note for an AFM. Specifically, in the VSS mode, the scanning speed is tuned online according to the feedback information to properly distribute imaging time along sample surface. Furthermore, some practical mechanism is proposed to determine the best time of moving the AFM tip to the next scanned point. The contrast experiment results show that the VSS method speeds up the imaging rate while ensuring image quality.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Robotics and Automatic Information System, Nankai University, 300071 Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Yudong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yongchun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Xiaokun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Dong