title: Atomic force microscopy in viscous ionic liquids.
abstract: Extracting quantitative information from amplitude-modulation atomic force microscopy (AM-AFM) in viscous ionic liquids is difficult because existing theory requires knowledge of the cantilever natural frequency, which cannot be measured in the absence of a resonance peak. We present a new model that describes cantilever dynamics in an overdamped medium (Q < 0.5) and derive the theory necessary to extract the stiffness and damping in highly viscous liquids. The proposed methodology is used to measure the solvation layers of an ionic liquid at a gold electrode.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2T8, Canada.
authors.forename: Aleksander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Labuda
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Grütter